Cyclist dies after collision

NEWPORT BEACH — A Santa Ana man was killed Thursday morning after he rode his bicycle downhill in Newport Beach’s Spyglass neighborhood and collided with a flatbed truck going in the opposite direction, police said.

Michael William Nine, 43, was pronounced dead at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian after he crashed on Harbor Ridge Drive and Spyglass Hill Road.

Police said that Nine collided with a white Chevrolet stake bed truck about 7:47 a.m., but said it was not clear if the truck had hit bicyclist or vice versa. An earlier report that Nine had crashed to avoid hitting the truck in the street is being contradicted by other witnesses, police said.

Nine was going northbound on Spyglass Hill Road, a two-lane, winding street leading down to San Miguel Drive that cyclists frequent on their morning rides, a security guard at a nearby gated community said. Nine and the vehicle collided as he came around a bend in the road curving toward the right.

A trail of evidence markers in the street by police show skid marks and blood drops trailing between the north and southbound lane divider. Police were examining Nine’s helmet, which was in one piece but had bits knocked off from the collision, traffic investigators remarked at the scene.

The truck driver, Jose Luis Huerta Mundo, 38, from Anaheim, was cited for driving without a license. He was not arrested or cited related to the crash and the investigation is ongoing, police said.

Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call Investigator Todd Bush at (949) 644-3746.