By james art 
A pedestrian and bicyclist suffered serious injuries in separate incidents on the outskirts of Leon County after being hit by vehicles this weekend.
The first incident happened Friday around 9:20 p.m. near West Tennessee and Poplar Street, where a 52-year-old driver from Midway hit a 26-year-old pedestrian.
The vehicle was traveling eastbound on West Tennessee Street in the infield at the same time a pedestrian was walking eastbound in the lane “for unknown reasons.”
“The driver … observed the pedestrian and swerved to avoid the pedestrian, but was unable to fully avoid the pedestrian,” the Florida Highway Patrol wrote in a news release. “The right front mirror crashed into the pedestrian.”
The pedestrian suffered serious injuries and was transported by emergency services to the hospital. FHP noted that they were unable to identify the pedestrian.
The second incident happened Saturday around 8:10 p.m. on State Road 20 east of Chaires Cross Road in eastern Leon County, where an 82-year-old man from St. Petersburg hit a 72-year-old bicyclist from Madison.
The bicycle was crossing lanes on State Route 20 while traveling northbound and entered the travel lanes directly into the path of an SUV traveling eastbound on SR 20, according to the FHP.
The Jeep swerved to avoid the bicyclist “but was unable to avoid the collision,” investigators wrote, striking the bicycle’s rear tire.
“The bicyclist was ejected … and came to a complete stop near the impact area,” the FHP wrote, adding that he was transported by EMS to a hospital.
The weekend incidents come amid heightened scrutiny of pedestrian and bicyclist accidents and road safety after a Florida State University student from Germany was killed last month while bicycling in Tallahassee.
So far this year, there have been 55 crashes involving bicycles and 164 crashes involving pedestrians in Leon County, according to the Florida Highway Traffic Safety and Motor Vehicle Crash Dashboard. Of those crashes, two bicycle crashes were fatal and nine pedestrian crashes were fatal, according to the Tallahassee Democrat’s dashboard and count.