Bicyclist who collided with car dies

Star Tribune

Last update: October 15, 2009 - 11:52 PM

A 47-year-old man has died of injuries he suffered in a car-bicycle accident Saturday in St. Louis Park, the Hennepin County medical examiner said.

Roger Allen Tomberlin, of St. Paul, was going east on a bicycle trail around 8 p.m. when he apparently struck the driver's side of a car as he crossed Belt Line Boulevard near Hwy. 7, according to a St. Louis Park police report.

The driver told police she heard a loud thud from the rear of her vehicle. A State Patrol accident reconstruction team found a hand print and elbow dent on the rear of the driver's side of the vehicle consistent with her account of the incident, the report said.

"There was no fault on the part of the driver," said St. Louis Park Police Chief John Luse. "The driver will not be charged."

Tomberlin had been out with his uncle Saturday at a few bars and restaurants in Hopkins and had "a few alcoholic beverages," the report said. The pair were riding back to St. Paul when the accident happened.

Tomberlin, who suffered a head injury, was not wearing a helmet. He was unresponsive when paramedics arrived and took him to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, where he died Tuesday.

TIM HARLOW