I'm so sick of reading and hearing about Drunk Drivers Killing Cyclists, Joggers and anyone else for that matter...I agree with the mother in this tragic story, this was in fact Murder, how could it possibly be anything else?...what do you think??
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=3622
Cyclist's mother calls
his death 'murder'
Mother grieves, expresses outrage over death of son John Peckham
Mary Ann Parker told her son, John E. Peckham, to "Be careful" when he left on a training ride Friday that ended in a fatal head-on collision with a vehicle driven by a man who was arrested for driving while intoxicated.
"He murdered him," she said in a Sunday-evening interview with the Weekly.
"John was doing nothing wrong but riding his bike where everybody rides their bikes," she said.
The California Highway Patrol reported that Peckham, 31, a well-known bicycle racer and resident of Mountain View, was westbound on old Page Mill Road above Palo Alto when an Oldsmobile driven by Chevelle Bailey, 41, of Fremont, crossed into his lane and collided with him head-on.
Bailey left the scene but ran off the road a short distance away, plunging about 50 feet down an embankment, where officers found him. He is in Santa Clara County Main Jail facing a variety of charges, including driving under the influence, the CHP reported.
But behind Parker's anger welled a choking grief for the loss of her only child, reflected in her automatic mother's admonition to be careful.
Parker, 62, said John had even interested her in cycling, and they did a 60-mile ride together the weekend before the fatal crash. "He gave that to me," she said of cycling.
Members of the Alto Velo Bicycle Racing Club were shaken by the death, the first in recent memory, according to club President Brian Peterson -- who stopped to compose himself twice as he discussed Peckham's rise within the race rankings despite his relatively recent entry into bicycle racing, and his positive influence on the club.
He said the club -- a Bay Area-wide group of just under 400 members, with a "center of gravity" in Mountain View -- is planning a memorial ride to the scene of the crash on Sunday, Sept. 24. A more formal service is planned for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 13, at Spangler Mortuary, 799 Castro St., Mountain View, with visitation from 3 to 6 p.m. A separate service will be held in St. Louis for friends and family there.
"I'm going to be on that ride," Parker said, citing the comfort she has gotten from "such an outpouring from that cycling community. It just makes me so proud of him, and so happy he was able to find a community of people who cared about him."
Peterson said in looking over ride photos to post on the group's Web site, it struck him that Peckham "always has the biggest smile. He was so happy to be riding. He had this very easy-going personality, but he was very enthusiastic about what he did."
Peterson said he stopped by the gathering spot of a Sunday ride and "every club member there had good things to say about him. John had such an effect on everybody in the club, whether they knew him personally or not."
Peterson said club records show Peckham did his first road-bike race in February 2005, and won it. He rose from a Category 5 to a Category 2 racer, based on points earned in races, in an incredibly short time.
"John was a very strong sprinter, as opposed to a climber," and used his strength to win races. Peckham also raced at the Hellyer County Park Velodrome, a steeply banked outdoor track in San Jose. He had just recovered from a crash in a Velodrome race earlier this year, and was concentrating on improving his hill-climbing abilities when he died, Peterson said.
Parker said her son always was athletic, mountain biking as far back as high school. She said he owned eight bicycles, including a mountain bike, a time-trial bike, a velodrome bike and two road bikes.
"I bought the bike he died on two Christmases ago," she said, adding that she worried at the time that he might get hurt on it, "as mother's do." But cycling "was his joy, it was his life."
She said he was born in Laguna Beach, Calif., but the family moved to the remote community of Salyer in Northern California when he was very young. She said she and his father, William Peckham, separated when John was 7, and she and John moved to Santa Rosa. They then moved to St. Louis, MO, where she was raised and had family and where John attended high school, playing football and making a national merit scholars' list in 1993.
Peckham attended the Christian Brothers College, studying mechanical engineering. He was recruited by a biomedical firm in Santa Rosa prior to his graduation with a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering. Recently, he worked for Boston Scientific in Fremont, and just started a new job in Mountain View with a start-up firm, working on stents, devices to keep blood vessels or other passages open within the body.
He just purchased a condo in Mountain View, moving from an apartment in Sunnyvale with his girlfriend, Cindy Sanford.
In addition to his mother and father, Peckham is survived by a half brother, Bill Peckham Jr.; his stepfather, Jack Parker, of St. Louis; three step-siblings, Tori Lombardo of Washington, D.C., Lizi Cruz of Mill Valley and John Parker Jr. of St Louis.
Memorial service for John E. Peckham:
Wednesday, Sept. 13, at Spangler Mortuary, 799 Castro St., Mountain View.
Visitation: 3-6 p.m.
Service: 6 p.m.
— Jay Thorwaldson
Find this article at:
http://www.PaloAltoOnline.com/news/story.php?story_id=3622
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=3622
Cyclist's mother calls
his death 'murder'
Mother grieves, expresses outrage over death of son John Peckham
Mary Ann Parker told her son, John E. Peckham, to "Be careful" when he left on a training ride Friday that ended in a fatal head-on collision with a vehicle driven by a man who was arrested for driving while intoxicated.
"He murdered him," she said in a Sunday-evening interview with the Weekly.
"John was doing nothing wrong but riding his bike where everybody rides their bikes," she said.
The California Highway Patrol reported that Peckham, 31, a well-known bicycle racer and resident of Mountain View, was westbound on old Page Mill Road above Palo Alto when an Oldsmobile driven by Chevelle Bailey, 41, of Fremont, crossed into his lane and collided with him head-on.
Bailey left the scene but ran off the road a short distance away, plunging about 50 feet down an embankment, where officers found him. He is in Santa Clara County Main Jail facing a variety of charges, including driving under the influence, the CHP reported.
But behind Parker's anger welled a choking grief for the loss of her only child, reflected in her automatic mother's admonition to be careful.
Parker, 62, said John had even interested her in cycling, and they did a 60-mile ride together the weekend before the fatal crash. "He gave that to me," she said of cycling.
Members of the Alto Velo Bicycle Racing Club were shaken by the death, the first in recent memory, according to club President Brian Peterson -- who stopped to compose himself twice as he discussed Peckham's rise within the race rankings despite his relatively recent entry into bicycle racing, and his positive influence on the club.
He said the club -- a Bay Area-wide group of just under 400 members, with a "center of gravity" in Mountain View -- is planning a memorial ride to the scene of the crash on Sunday, Sept. 24. A more formal service is planned for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 13, at Spangler Mortuary, 799 Castro St., Mountain View, with visitation from 3 to 6 p.m. A separate service will be held in St. Louis for friends and family there.
"I'm going to be on that ride," Parker said, citing the comfort she has gotten from "such an outpouring from that cycling community. It just makes me so proud of him, and so happy he was able to find a community of people who cared about him."
Peterson said in looking over ride photos to post on the group's Web site, it struck him that Peckham "always has the biggest smile. He was so happy to be riding. He had this very easy-going personality, but he was very enthusiastic about what he did."
Peterson said he stopped by the gathering spot of a Sunday ride and "every club member there had good things to say about him. John had such an effect on everybody in the club, whether they knew him personally or not."
Peterson said club records show Peckham did his first road-bike race in February 2005, and won it. He rose from a Category 5 to a Category 2 racer, based on points earned in races, in an incredibly short time.
"John was a very strong sprinter, as opposed to a climber," and used his strength to win races. Peckham also raced at the Hellyer County Park Velodrome, a steeply banked outdoor track in San Jose. He had just recovered from a crash in a Velodrome race earlier this year, and was concentrating on improving his hill-climbing abilities when he died, Peterson said.
Parker said her son always was athletic, mountain biking as far back as high school. She said he owned eight bicycles, including a mountain bike, a time-trial bike, a velodrome bike and two road bikes.
"I bought the bike he died on two Christmases ago," she said, adding that she worried at the time that he might get hurt on it, "as mother's do." But cycling "was his joy, it was his life."
She said he was born in Laguna Beach, Calif., but the family moved to the remote community of Salyer in Northern California when he was very young. She said she and his father, William Peckham, separated when John was 7, and she and John moved to Santa Rosa. They then moved to St. Louis, MO, where she was raised and had family and where John attended high school, playing football and making a national merit scholars' list in 1993.
Peckham attended the Christian Brothers College, studying mechanical engineering. He was recruited by a biomedical firm in Santa Rosa prior to his graduation with a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering. Recently, he worked for Boston Scientific in Fremont, and just started a new job in Mountain View with a start-up firm, working on stents, devices to keep blood vessels or other passages open within the body.
He just purchased a condo in Mountain View, moving from an apartment in Sunnyvale with his girlfriend, Cindy Sanford.
In addition to his mother and father, Peckham is survived by a half brother, Bill Peckham Jr.; his stepfather, Jack Parker, of St. Louis; three step-siblings, Tori Lombardo of Washington, D.C., Lizi Cruz of Mill Valley and John Parker Jr. of St Louis.
Memorial service for John E. Peckham:
Wednesday, Sept. 13, at Spangler Mortuary, 799 Castro St., Mountain View.
Visitation: 3-6 p.m.
Service: 6 p.m.
— Jay Thorwaldson
Find this article at:
http://www.PaloAltoOnline.com/news/story.php?story_id=3622
