Minutes before a pickup truck crashed into Kellie Standish, William Colby Tucker and Annie Adams, the June bike ride seemed like any other the friends had taken.
The three headed from the bike path near Emma Wood State Beach into a marked bike lane on old Pacific Coast Highway, just north of Ventura. They rode near Solimar Beach, alongside the ocean and toward the sunset. Then, in seconds, everything changed
.The truck veered into the bike lane, striking all three cyclists. Adams was seriously injured and her friends — Standish, 33, and Tucker, 39 — were killed. In the weeks and months after the crash, friends came together to push for changes, ones they say could make the popular recreation corridor safer for cyclists and pedestrians.
“Unfortunately,
they are not the first to be killed here,” Ventura resident Morgan Stickney said of Standish and Tucker. “And, they will not be the last if we do not learn from this event.”
Stickney, Adams and Alejandra Belalcázar organized Safe Rec Ventura, a sort of coalition of cyclists, runners, surfers, beachgoers and others. The group shared a goal – to make sure the deaths were not met in silence and to help turn the community’s grief into lasting change, Belalcázar said.
Agencies report other PCH crashes
In early September, the three and several others urged the Ventura County Board of Supervisors to work with agencies to improve safety on the road, which is a state route. Speaking at the meeting, several also said the driver in the crash needed to be held accountable.
The California Highway Patrol responded to the crash on State Route 1 just after 7 p.m. on June 11 and authorities arrested the driver. He was later charged with two counts of second-degree murder and driving under the influence causing injury and without a valid license. He has pleaded not guilty and the case is pending in Ventura County Superior Court.
Data showed that multiple fatalities and nearly three dozen injury crashes were reported on PCH, from Emma Wood State Beach in the Ventura area to Seacliff, just south of the Santa Barbara County line, since 2014, according to Adams. Those numbers likely are an underestimate, since accidents likely were never reported, she said.
Adams and others described a tense feeling when riding out of the bike path and onto the PCH bike lane. Cyclists can hear — and sometimes feel — as cars and trucks drive by, at times accelerating or hitting their horns as they pass.
“There’s a lot of tension on that stretch of highway,” Adams said.
Supervisor Matt LaVere said his office received hundreds of emails from people asking for the county and others to get involved in creating safer access on the highway.
Earlier this month, LaVere met with representatives from Safe Rec Ventura, the California Department of Transportation, Ventura County Transportation Commission, offices of Assemblymember Steve Bennett and state Sen. Monique Limón and others.
"We agreed to work together collaboratively to figure out what can be done," LaVere said.
Caltrans, which has jurisdiction over the state roadway, agreed to do a safety study, LaVere said. Plans call for meeting again after that initial study is completed in upcoming weeks, he said.
Bennett also spoke to Caltrans officials and said he had scheduled future discussions as well. The agency was open to looking at potential next steps and had started that process, he said.
Ghost bikes honor Standish, Tucker
On the side of PCH, two ghost bikes now lean against a pole in honor of Standish and Tucker. Strings of flowers curl around the frames, wheels and up the pole.
Families and friends said the pair's love of the outdoors started when they were both young. Tucker's family called him a good friend, a bright light and wrote in his obituary that he loved spending time outside while in Ventura, from running and cycling to surfing and, more recently, sailing.
Standish was a cyclist and a runner. She loved surfing, dancing and glitter, her friends and family said. She was everyone’s best friend, said Adams, who described her as glitter in human form.
She wanted to go to bed exhausted and wake up excited, her father Myles Standish said about one of his daughter's personal goals. She lived that, he said.
He described his daughter as someone who could meet people where they were and build community. She had lived in Ventura and recently moved home to Bend, Oregon, but returned in June to work on marketing for a documentary called "Adapted" and to visit friends.
"I appreciate so much that her friends have grabbed ahold and are trying to make sure no one else lives through this," her dad said about Safe Rec Ventura.
Belalcázar said local and state officials have been responsive to the group and open to discussions. Protected bike paths have proven effective elsewhere and previously plans had been created for the route, she said. She told county supervisors earlier this month that the groundwork already exists.
“We just need the will to get it to the finish line,” she said.
Cheri Carlson covers the environment and county government for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at cheri.carlson@vcstar.com.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Fatal PCH crash near Ventura prompts group to seek changes. Here's why
