A 12-year-old boy told police he screamed and ran up and down streets in a panic in the moments after the fatal collision on Key Biscayne between his e-bike and a bicycle ridden by Megan Andrews, after first asking her, “Are you OK?”
“The collision caused him to fall into the street,” the report by the Miami-Dade Police Department stated. “He was scared for the victim because she did not respond to his question.”
He told police he did not see Andrews before the collision because it was dark.
The details of the boy’s interview – conducted with a parent present – are part of the traffic homicide investigative report released after a public records request. The file shows the steps investigators took – but there are few additional details and no change to a medical examiner’s ruling that the Feb. 14 collision was accidental.
Andrews’ death caused the Village Council to enact a temporary ban on e-bikes and scooters, but the impact of the tragedy has spread far beyond Key Biscayne.
An unprecedented new Miami-Dade County ordinance that would cede enforcement power to the Village is moving toward approval, and a state lawmaker has vowed to change the Florida law covering electric micromobility devices. Other municipalities, such as Bal Harbor, are also considering changes to laws.
Andrews, 66, was pronounced dead after being rushed to the Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital. The Key Biscayne Independent does not generally publish the names of juveniles in law enforcement cases.
The report noted that a traffic homicide investigator canvassed the neighborhood, looking for surveillance camera video. One resident thought there might be footage, but when checked the following day, the camera equipment was found to be inoperable.
The boy said he was heading to the Village Green for soccer practice and had come to a full stop at a stop sign before resuming his journey southbound. Both bikes were just south of the intersection of Hampton Lane and Woodcrest Rd.
Police said there was no white light attached to the victim’s bicycle, and Andrews was not wearing a helmet. The report says there was a light attached to the e-bike, although the boy said he wasn’t sure if it was operating.
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Tony Winton is the editor-in-chief of the Key Biscayne Independent and president of Miami Fourth Estate, Inc. He worked previously at The Associated Press for three decades winning multiple Edward R. Murrow awards. He was president of the News Media Guild, a journalism union, for 10 years. Born in Chicago, he is a graduate of Columbia University. His interests are photography and technology, sailing, cooking, and science fiction.