Florida bike crashes: 7 things that may shock you

FORT MYERS, Fla.- Seven surprising things about Florida bike crashes.

Snowbirds aren’t to blame for most crashes; red-light running bicyclists aren’t either.

Florida is topping the lists in a very bad way. Last year, 120 people were killed while riding bikes.

The Sunshine State has long been the most lethal in the nation for bicyclists.

There’s a litany of reasons: wide, fast roadways, lacking education, bad drivers, yearlong riding weather, and lagging infrastructure and laws.

Many safety advocates, planners, lawmakers and law enforcement are chiseling away at solutions.

Southwest Florida often ranks in the top ten in the state for bike fatalities and crashes.

Lee County had eight bicyclist fatalities in 2014, the same number as Tampa and Orlando, which count twice as many people.

Our partners at The News-Press analyzed five years of data on 1,400 Lee and Collier bike crashes with the aim of digging deeper into the dangers. We were surprised by many of the findings.