Michael Joe Richardson's family says their brother never met a stranger.

Richardson, 55, was the kind of man who would help old ladies carry their bags at the grocery store. The Redington Shores man loved his mother, the Cincinnati Bengals and Florida fishing, they said.

“He loved America and he loved God," said his sister, Peggy Greene. "That’s what you heard him talk about all the time.”

He was an Army veteran who died on Veteran’s Day.

Richardson was the man killed Monday afternoon when a wrong-way driver slammed into a public bus, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

Richardson, an avid cyclist, was loading his bike onto the front of a Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority bus that had stopped in Indian Rocks Beach. The bus was on southbound Gulf Boulevard when deputies said a northbound SUV crossed over and struck the front of the bus just before 2 p.m. Monday.

Paramedics flew Richardson to Bayfront Health St. Petersburg for emergency medical treatment. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital. He left behind a son and three grandchildren.

Deputies identified David Larry Schwab, 58, of New Hartford, Iowa as the driver of the 2016 Ford Flex that killed Richardson. Schwab, who sustained minor injuries in the crash, was also taken to a local hospital to be treated for less severe injuries.

At the hospital, deputies said Schwab consented to have his blood taken. Tests revealed that his blood-alcohol content level was 0.083. Florida law presumes a driver is impaired with a BAC of 0.08 or greater.

Schwab was booked at the hospital on charges of DUI manslaughter and DUI with property damage. He was then released after posting $20,500 bail. He could not be reached for comment.

[photo credit: Tampa Bay Times]