Bike victims' families seek safer roads

Kathryn Underdown loved the freedom of cycling, the thrill of pushing herself to the limit.

She was out for a Sunday ride in Miller Place on May 2, 2010, when a driver who prosecutors say was high on prescription drugs struck her, tried to drive away, then crashed into another vehicle.

"You're on the road, you're your own engine, it's a great feeling," said Underdown's husband, Michael Slovitsky. "People tell me she died instantly."

Underdown, 45, was one of 64 cyclists killed on Long Island roads from 2005 through this year. The victims were children and adults, athletes and workers. Two-thirds of them died in Suffolk County.

They included Santos Rodriguez, 39, a Salvadoran immigrant who in 2007 collided with a truck on his way to work at a Bayport pizzeria, and Jackelin Vilorio, 9, of Rocky Point, who was struck by a Jeep last month.

Those who have been affected by bike crashes on Long Island -- cyclists who survived and relatives of those who didn't -- say everyone must do more to make the roads safer.

Slovitsky, a chef who shared his wife's passion for physical fitness, says he hasn't given up cycling, but he is even more vigilant on the road.

"When I ride, I try to make eye contact with people," he said. "If people do not make eye contact with me, I stop my bike."

He said he has watched drivers waiting to pull out into traffic look at him, then cut him off, forcing him to brake suddenly.

"Both cyclists and drivers have to learn how to share the road," he said. "Thank God I'm looking."

Anthony Barone, 78, of Dix Hills, rode his bike into a ditch to avoid a car that was coming right at him one day last November. Barone, former president of the Huntington Bicycle Club, regained consciousness in the hospital, with broken ribs and a concussion.

Drivers, he noted, are required to allow a safe distance as they pass a cyclist -- three feet is the clearance suggested by state law.

"They rarely do that," he said.

At the same time, cyclists sometimes make reckless decisions, noted Vincent Marano, 62, of Bethpage.

His son Stephen, 32, a stockbroker, hopped on the handlebars of a friend's bike after grabbing a bagel in Bethpage one morning in April.

A box truck hit them from behind and fled the scene, leaving Stephen Marano fatally injured. His friend is still in the hospital, Vincent Marano said.

Neither was wearing a helmet.

"Couldn't I have taught him any better?" Vincent Marano said. "Why did he do something so foolish?"

With Mikala Jamison