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10-18-08, 09:14 PM
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10756783
'Ghost bike' honors cyclists struck by sheriff's cruiser in Cupertino foothills
By Denis C. Theriault
Mercury News
San Jose Mercury News
Article Launched:10/18/2008 06:33:26 PM PDT
"This is not a happy place."
John Peterson was back in the Cupertino foothills, standing on a small bluff off Stevens Canyon Road where cool morning breezes were quickly giving way to the sun's eager warmth. With his back turned to a stunning panorama of hillsides and treetops, he was trying not to cry.
This was the road where his son, Matt, an avid cyclist, was killed in a crash more than seven months ago.
Early on Saturday morning, it was the road where Peterson hoped his son's memory — and legacy — might live on.
For also behind Peterson was a plaque bearing his son's name. And next to it was one more plaque, this one with the name of Matt's riding partner, Kristy Gough, also killed that late-winter day when a Santa Clara County sheriff's cruiser veered across a double-yellow line and into a close-knit group of riders.
"My hope is that people will see this memorial, and they will be inspired to excel and that they will realize how precious and how quickly life can change," John Peterson said, his family alongside him. "We just need to live life, not with reckless abandon, but with passion, with purpose."
His words came at a tearful ceremony uniting nearly everyone touched by the horrific scene that unfolded in these hills March 9: Friends and family of Gough, 30, and Peterson, 29, their teammates and others in the Bay Area cycling community. Even the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department, whose deputies led a pedaling procession of hundreds bicyclists up Stevens Canyon Road and then back down once again.
"Right after the accident, we spent about 45 minutes here," John Peterson said. "It was perhaps the most difficult thing we did."
GHOST BIKE MEMORIAL
The quiet bluff lies just a few hundred feet south from the spot where Peterson and Gough, an Olympic hopeful, were struck — a site still marked by photos and a handful of mementoes, as well as a 4-foot wooden cross and some fading Buddhist prayer flags strung between a pair of fence posts.
Their plaques join a third, in honor of another fallen bicyclist, Jeffrey Steinwedel, killed on Stevens Canyon Road in 1996, Looming over all three is an all-white "ghost bike," a chilling symbol of loss on a stretch of Stevens Canyon Road long popular with cyclists because of its challenging incline and generously wide lanes. The Cupertino City Council unanimously approved the memorial for Gough and Peterson in April.
Kristy's father, Rip, remembered his daughter calling him up after a grueling ride, her legs in the air to let the blood drain out of them, and talking about the myriad hazards cyclists are forced to endure, the cars brushing past just inches away, the riders forced from the pavement.
He said he wanted drivers heading past his daughter's memorial to hold precious the lives of those other biking enthusiasts sharing the road.
"The people on a bicycle riding on the side of the road, or running on the side of the road," he implored, "are people who are somebody's mother or father, or a son or a daughter, or a sister or brother."
Added Gough's mother, Karen Sue Clarkson: "I hope you'll glance over this way and think of Kristy and let her inspire you."
The deputy driving the cruiser, James "Tommy" Council, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter in connection with the March 9 crash. His next pre-trial hearing is set for Nov. 14. Prosecutors have accused him of falling asleep behind the wheel while on routine patrol that morning, and witnesses after the crash described him as dazed and saying he had dozed off.
Peterson was killed instantly, while Gough was airlifted to Stanford Hospital, where she later died. Another cyclist, Christopher Knapp of Germany, was hospitalized with a broken limb. And a fourth, Daniel Brasse, lagging behind the group, was uninjured. He was left, however, with haunting memories, the gruesome scene he found himself facing after a bend in the road.
Brasse, a teammate of Gough's on the Third Pillar Systems racing team, was at the ceremony with his wife and two small daughters. On his uniform was a patch: "KG 03/09/08." He'd been back to Stevens Canyon Road just once after the crash, a few weeks later, to "finish the ride." Seeing the ghost bike brought the emotions back.
"I thought all the tears were gone," he said. "I thought I was stronger."
After the ceremony, as the cluster of cyclists dispersed and the road past the site was reopened, the drivers returned. And their eyes,as they passed, caught the stark frame of that ghost bike, too.
Contact Denis C. Theriault at dtheriault@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5035.
'Ghost bike' honors cyclists struck by sheriff's cruiser in Cupertino foothills
By Denis C. Theriault
Mercury News
San Jose Mercury News
Article Launched:10/18/2008 06:33:26 PM PDT
"This is not a happy place."
John Peterson was back in the Cupertino foothills, standing on a small bluff off Stevens Canyon Road where cool morning breezes were quickly giving way to the sun's eager warmth. With his back turned to a stunning panorama of hillsides and treetops, he was trying not to cry.
This was the road where his son, Matt, an avid cyclist, was killed in a crash more than seven months ago.
Early on Saturday morning, it was the road where Peterson hoped his son's memory — and legacy — might live on.
For also behind Peterson was a plaque bearing his son's name. And next to it was one more plaque, this one with the name of Matt's riding partner, Kristy Gough, also killed that late-winter day when a Santa Clara County sheriff's cruiser veered across a double-yellow line and into a close-knit group of riders.
"My hope is that people will see this memorial, and they will be inspired to excel and that they will realize how precious and how quickly life can change," John Peterson said, his family alongside him. "We just need to live life, not with reckless abandon, but with passion, with purpose."
His words came at a tearful ceremony uniting nearly everyone touched by the horrific scene that unfolded in these hills March 9: Friends and family of Gough, 30, and Peterson, 29, their teammates and others in the Bay Area cycling community. Even the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department, whose deputies led a pedaling procession of hundreds bicyclists up Stevens Canyon Road and then back down once again.
"Right after the accident, we spent about 45 minutes here," John Peterson said. "It was perhaps the most difficult thing we did."
GHOST BIKE MEMORIAL
The quiet bluff lies just a few hundred feet south from the spot where Peterson and Gough, an Olympic hopeful, were struck — a site still marked by photos and a handful of mementoes, as well as a 4-foot wooden cross and some fading Buddhist prayer flags strung between a pair of fence posts.
Their plaques join a third, in honor of another fallen bicyclist, Jeffrey Steinwedel, killed on Stevens Canyon Road in 1996, Looming over all three is an all-white "ghost bike," a chilling symbol of loss on a stretch of Stevens Canyon Road long popular with cyclists because of its challenging incline and generously wide lanes. The Cupertino City Council unanimously approved the memorial for Gough and Peterson in April.
Kristy's father, Rip, remembered his daughter calling him up after a grueling ride, her legs in the air to let the blood drain out of them, and talking about the myriad hazards cyclists are forced to endure, the cars brushing past just inches away, the riders forced from the pavement.
He said he wanted drivers heading past his daughter's memorial to hold precious the lives of those other biking enthusiasts sharing the road.
"The people on a bicycle riding on the side of the road, or running on the side of the road," he implored, "are people who are somebody's mother or father, or a son or a daughter, or a sister or brother."
Added Gough's mother, Karen Sue Clarkson: "I hope you'll glance over this way and think of Kristy and let her inspire you."
The deputy driving the cruiser, James "Tommy" Council, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter in connection with the March 9 crash. His next pre-trial hearing is set for Nov. 14. Prosecutors have accused him of falling asleep behind the wheel while on routine patrol that morning, and witnesses after the crash described him as dazed and saying he had dozed off.
Peterson was killed instantly, while Gough was airlifted to Stanford Hospital, where she later died. Another cyclist, Christopher Knapp of Germany, was hospitalized with a broken limb. And a fourth, Daniel Brasse, lagging behind the group, was uninjured. He was left, however, with haunting memories, the gruesome scene he found himself facing after a bend in the road.
Brasse, a teammate of Gough's on the Third Pillar Systems racing team, was at the ceremony with his wife and two small daughters. On his uniform was a patch: "KG 03/09/08." He'd been back to Stevens Canyon Road just once after the crash, a few weeks later, to "finish the ride." Seeing the ghost bike brought the emotions back.
"I thought all the tears were gone," he said. "I thought I was stronger."
After the ceremony, as the cluster of cyclists dispersed and the road past the site was reopened, the drivers returned. And their eyes,as they passed, caught the stark frame of that ghost bike, too.
Contact Denis C. Theriault at dtheriault@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5035.