Patrick Wanninkhof, who once wrote that bicycling was in his blood, was struck and killed on an Oklahoma highway while taking part in a cross-country trek for charity.
The 25-year-old, who was living in New York but is originally from Key Biscayne, was making the long-distance ride from Maine to California as a part of the Bike & Build project when he was struck on Thursday. Bike & Build members make long-distance trips to raise money for affordable housing.
The Bike & Build website, of which Wanninkhof was a group leader, says it has donated more than $5.1 million and spent over 185,000 hours building housing for the poor. Wanninkhof’s sister Suzette completed a similar cross-country bike trip in 2014, riding from South Carolina to California.
“As a teacher in the Bronx,” Patrick Wanninkhof wrote on the Bike & Build website, “I know that biking across America pales in comparison to the struggles my students must overcome on a daily basis.”
According to a story on Oklahoma’s KTOV-6 website, Wanninkhof’s group stopped in Tulsa last weekend to do work for Habitat for Humanity.
The group of 26 cyclists left Portland, Maine, on June 21 and planned to make it to Southern California by Aug. 31. Wanninkhof was struck about 200 miles southwest of Tulsa near Elk City, Oklahoma.
Wanninkhof graduated summa cum laude from the University of Florida in 2012 with a degree in Materials Engineering.
He earned a Masters in Teaching Adolescent Physics at Fordham University in New York and was living in the Bronx working as a high school teacher.
According to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Wanninkhof was struck by a Chevrolet driven by Sarah Morris, who said she was distracted and looking at her phone. Wanninkhof was declared dead at the scene of the accident.
Bridget Anderson, 22, was Wanninkhof’s riding partner on Thursday morning and was also hit. She was airlifted to a local hospital with a leg injury.
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