OLCOTT - A Newfane woman has been charged with texting while driving and speeding after an investigation into the crash that killed a Burt man last month as he rode his bicycle along Transit Road.
Alicia Westgate, 25, was charged Tuesday with reckless operation, use of a portable device for texting, speeding and failure to use due care by the Niagara County Sheriff's Office. She will appear in Newfane Town Court on Aug. 14 to answer the charges.
Westgate struck Richard L. Webb at 12:20 p.m. July 16, as both were headed south in the 1900 block of Transit Road, between Godfrey and Jockey roads.
The crash killed Webb, 68, an avid bicyclist who rode several times in the Ride for Roswell fundraiser to benefit Roswell Park Cancer Institute. The former California resident was a father to three grown children and grandfather to seven.
Westgate had 3- and 4-year-old passengers in the back seat of her car and told deputies following the crash that she didn't see Webb. Driver inattention was blamed on the crash, deputies said.
Webb was wearing a helmet at the time of the collision. The force of the crash sent him over the roof of Westgate's car, a 2005 Chevy Malibu, according to deputies at the scene.
Brian McNeece, a friend of Webb's who often cycled with him when he lived in California, wrote in an email to the Buffalo News, "Rick was famous for his blithe spirit and amazing ability to ride a bike."
He said Webb ran a manufacturing plant before becoming a bike mechanic on the West Coast.
"Rick could ride, ride, ride and was liable to [be found] on any road in our county," McNeece wrote. "It was a tragedy that he was killed on his bike."
