WESTERLO — Joseph Dober, 18, of Westerlo, struck a pickup truck while riding his bike on Aug. 5, according to police.

A Medflight took him to Albany Medical Center, according to State Trooper Maureen Tuffey, spokeswoman for Troop G.

 No information on Dober was available yesterday from Albany Medical Center, according to hospital spokeswoman Nicole Pitaniello.

On the afternoon of Friday, Aug. 5, Robert Loucks, 27, of Westerlo, was driving south on County Route 401 in a pickup truck, when there were bicyclists on both sides of the road, according to Tuffey. “I don’t think it was apparent they were on the left side of the road,” she said of the cyclists.

Tuffey, consulting the accident report, described the scene that led to the accident this way:  “He can see three kids in his lane…He passes them. In order to pass them, he had to cross over the centerline and that’s when he saw too late the bicycle in the northbound [lane],” said Tuffey; Dober was riding the bike in the northbound lane.

“The bicyclist turned left into the pathway of the truck; he caused the accident,” said Tuffey. So Loucks was not charged for causing the accident since he was not at fault.

Loucks was charged by the State Police with second-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, a misdemeanor, for driving while his license was suspended, said Tuffey. “He was suspended at the time of the accident,” she said.

—         Melissa Hale-Spencer