IRVINE – These chilling numbers should bother us. They should remind us that we, motorists, must pay more attention when we’re driving and sharing our roads.

Since this time last year, 17 people have been struck down and killed by motorists while bicycling on Orange County streets. Some drivers were speeding or distracted, at least one high on meth. Some cyclists weren’t following traffic laws, putting themselves in harm’s way.

But forget fault for a minute and recognize that these fatal accidents were preventable and avoidable.

Bill Sellin, a bicycling enthusiast and founder of the Bicycle Club of Irvine, begrudgingly charts these statistics because he hopes putting numbers to the tragedies might force everyone to be more careful.

We’re talking 17 people, including seven in the first four-plus months of 2014, who died since the last time Sellin and others took to our local streets to memorialize the deceased in the Ride of Silence on May 15, 2013.

This year’s ride is Wednesday night. There are many rolling out that night, slowly moving through community streets around the county, including three locally scheduled to run from Irvine Civic Center, the North San Clemente Metrolink station and Fullerton Downtown Plaza.

Some riders will wear red armbands signifying that they have been injured by motorists. Some will wear black armbands to show they’ve lost someone close.

All will pedal slowly – no faster than 10 mph – in single or double file along designated 8- to 10-mile routes. Local motorcycle police will monitor traffic wherever this somber parade travels.

If you’re driving in Irvine around 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, you might see this pedaling procession of 200 riders along Alton Parkway, crossing Culver Drive, Jeffrey Road, Sand Canyon Trail and Laguna Canyon Road and returning along San Diego Creek Trail.

Unlike on the leisurely social trips when bicyclists ride next to each other and talk, nobody on this ride will utter a word. Their silence will be to honor the 17 who’ve died.

“The Ride of Silence is a remembrance and a reminder that we need to share our roads with both motorists who need to be more careful and riders who need to follow the highway rules for safety,” said Sellin, 57, of Orange, a recently retired Irvine recreation department supervisor who led the city’s first ride in 2005.

“People are getting hurt and killed. We need to pay attention to what we’re doing. The numbers are scary.”

Dave Hanson, owner of the Jax Bicycle Centers chain, will be near the front of the Irvine pack on Wednesday and riding for No. 11 on the list: Joey Robinson.

Robinson, 21, worked at Hanson’s Irvine shop as a client adviser and was an avid cyclist known for sharing his enthusiasm for the sport with customers. He was studying business at Irvine Valley College and planning on opening his own bike shop one day.

Around 7 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 2, Robinson was riding in the shoulder of Santiago Canyon Road near Loma Ridge in Orange when a speeding Toyota Corolla veered into the bike lane and struck him from behind.

He was hit so violently that only one of his cycling shoes remained in the path. An Orange County Fire Authority battalion chief heading to work saw the fleeing Corolla’s caved-in windshield and the lone shoe and stopped to search the brush beyond the guardrail.

That’s where Robinson was found, dead, killed instantly by the impact. Police arrested the hit-and-run driver, Sommer Gonzales, 18, later that day.

Orange County deputies found the damaged Corolla in a Rancho Santa Magarita parking lot and Gonzales there, high on meth, drugs on her, a pipe in her pocket. She was arrested on suspicion of felony vehicular manslaughter, driving under the influence of drugs, hit and run, possession of a controlled substance and a slew of related misdemeanors.

“I remember getting the text that day to call the Irvine shop,” Hanson said. “I was just getting ready to have a Super Bowl party when I heard the news.

“I didn’t know what to say,” he added. “I still don’t.”

Which is why Hanson will ride in silence. It’s why he is closing all eight of his shops – five Orange County locations – an hour early at 6 p.m. Wednesday so that his 50 employees can ride for Robinson.

Robinson’s mother, Valerie DuBois, just bought a new bicycle and will join Hanson’s group wearing Jax Bicycle Center kits. They also will be riding in honor of Debra Deem, the wife of Cycle Werks owner Paul Deem. She was killed Aug. 27 while riding in Newport Beach.

“This ride is about getting us all not to lose sight that it’s a privilege to be on these roads and that we need to be compassionate about the other people, drivers, pedestrians and cyclists who share them with us,” Hanson said.

Hanson and Sellin get their wheels turning wildly when talking about the drivers who’ve passed them while riding, with the cars speeding by, nearly side-swiping them, honking and with some raging motorists yelling “Get off the road!”

They both push for stiffer legislation and penalties against distracted drivers. They both urge motorists to pass cyclists with care and caution and press cyclists to follow traffic rules, wear helmets, outfit bicycles with lights and be visible to drivers.

Sellin, looking over his list, sadly accepts that it will contain more than 17 names before 2014 ends. For that reason, Sellin will tell riders on Wednesday night, “I hope you are all here next year.”

Nobody should be another number.

Contact the writer: masmith@ocregister.com