The victim of a fatal crash Monday, Nov. 30, at the intersection of State Road A1A and Mickler Road has been identified in media reports as broadcast journalist and attorney Tim O’Brien, 77, of Ponte Vedra Beach.
O’Brien had been riding a bicycle and was reportedly waiting at the intersection when he was struck by a vehicle that had left the road in a multi-car crash, Florida Highway Patrol official had told some media outlets.
As a journalist, O’Brien had covered the Supreme Court for ABC News for 22 years and later won an Emmy for his work on CNN’s coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks.
His reporting won him a number of other honors, including the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award and a Columbia-DuPont Award for Human Rights Reporting for his work on “Escape from Justice – Nazi War Criminals in America,” an ABC News documentary.
According to The Washington Post, he also covered the trial of the man who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, John W. Hinckley Jr., and congressional hearings concerning the Iran-contra affair.
He was also an attorney and, with Martin Clancy, co-wrote “Murder at the Supreme Court: Lethal Crimes and Landmark Cases.” The book, published in 2013, examines the issue of the death penalty, as well as a secret Supreme Court vote that could have signaled its end.
