28-Year-Old Unicyclist Killed in Augusta Collision; Investigation Underway

Johnathan Bauer, 28, is dead. The Halloween afternoon he died in Augusta, Maine, he was on an electric unicycle. An oncoming car hit him around 3:20 pm. He never stood a chance.

Local police say the impact triggered a massive emergency response, clogging the roads with traffic backups. The Augusta Police Department urged residents to slow down and watch their surroundings, but Bauer was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver involved, Rhysonne Bishop, 26, escaped uninjured. Bishop is from Mississippi. No one has been arrested yet.

The investigation is messy. Authorities are still trying to piece together exactly what went wrong at that intersection. Maine State Police have jumped in alongside local officers. They are begging for witnesses. If you saw it, they want to hear from you. The Daily Mail reached out to both agencies, but the answers are slow to come. Jesse Brann, the deputy chief of police, admitted the probe could drag on.

Grief is heavy in Bauer’s family. His parents launched an online fundraiser to cover funeral bills and travel costs. They needed a way to get back east. The campaign smashed its $3,000 goal by more than $1,000 by Monday night. "Our family has experienced the sudden passing of our beloved son on Halloween," the plea reads. "We are struggling to cover the unexpected costs and need to find a way to get back east." They called the loss "heart-wrenching."

His sister, Natashia, posted a photo of them at his graduation. "Little brother, I can't believe this is real," she wrote. "Take me back to this moment." In another post, the pain was raw. "I don't want to wake up. I don't want to feel this pain. How do I say goodbye to someone whose been with me my whole damn life?"

This tragedy highlights a blind spot in traffic law. Electric unicycles are tricky beasts. Riders stand up, balancing on a single wheel that can be difficult to control. Drivers often can't see them. State laws are a patchwork. New York banned them from public streets. Maine is vaguer. The state allows motorized bicycles and tricycles, but it doesn't explicitly say electric unicycles are in or out.

Most of these devices top out between 15 and 20 mph. Some, like the InMotion P6, can hit a scary 93 mph. Police haven't said which model Bauer was riding. That detail matters. It changes everything about how fast he might have been moving when the car struck him.