Lakeside motorcycle club president recalls horror

Five dead, six injured when car collides with bikers
By Matthew T. Hall

Sunday, November 14, 2010 at 9:59 a.m.

When tragedy struck the Saddletramp motorcycle club Saturday afternoon, Carl Smith was at the front of a pack of 21 riders heading to Winterhaven near the Arizona border to celebrate the club's 10-year anniversary.

Then a car tried to pass all 12 motorcycles and another, oncoming car swerved out of control, onto a sandy shoulder of the desert highway Route 98 and back into the middle of the pack of motorcyclists. Four riders would die. Four others remained at a San Diego hospital Sunday morning.

"There were two or three other bikes behind me that narrowly missed it, and then the carnage started from there," Smith said Sunday. "We were going east and the car was going west and the combined speed was 120 mph."

"The oncoming car, the one you seen on TV, panicked, hit his brakes, lost control and went into the middle of the pack like a bowling ball," said Smith, the club's president.

The accident happened at about 1 p.m. seven miles east of Ocotillo. Authorities are looking for the driver of the eastbound gold Honda Civic, which did not stop. They have arrested the driver of the westbound Dodge Avenger that collided with the motorcyclists on suspicion of driving under the influence after smelling alcohol on his breath, KUSI Channel 9 news reported.

The sedan driver, identified by KUSI as Carlos Ramirez, 36, of Mexicali, Mexico, suffered major injuries and his female passenger was killed. Both were from Mexico.

Two male and two female motorcyclists were dead before paramedics got there, said Capt. Peter Stanton of the Imperial County Fire Department. Five others were injured, one critically.

A husband and wife riding on one motorcycle were among those killed, as was the wife of another rider who was badly injured, California Highway Patrol Officer Deeann Goudie said.

Imperial County fire officials referred questions to the CHP Sunday morning. Goudie was not immediately available for comment.

Smith said the speed limit of the stretch of road where the crash occurred is 65 mph.

The remote location of the accident meant that it took some time for rescue personnel to arrive. That left riders frantically trying to save the lives of the friends they could.

"It took 45 minutes for anybody to get out there," Smith said. "A half hour anyway. It seemed like an eternity. I was giving CPR to one that still had a chance to no avail. There were some that were dismembered that there was no hope for."

The Saddletramps club formed 10 years ago to give friends a chance to ride and help their community.

It was "pretty much just a group of guys that rode together and formed to support the hometown of Lakeside." Now there are about 20 members from around the county. They hail from Alpine, like Smith, and from El Cajon. They hold fundraisers for the Lakeside Boys and Girls Club, the Lakeside Community Health Center and the non-gaming Indian reservations. "They weren't getting any help," Smith explained. "Some of the non-gaming Indian reservations are some of the poorest people in the state."

Laurie Najor, an employee at the Live Oak Springs Resort in Boulevard said she knew club members from a series of Biketober celebrations they held in recent years. She said the group was charitable and kind.

Smith, 52 and a motorcyclist for 35 years, declined to say which club members were killed because some family members have yet to be notified. He said the club came home rather than continue eastward.

"I'm on my way to the hospital," he said.

KNSD Channel 7 reported that authorities have identified the injured as Wilson Trayer, 39, of Lakeside; Kelly Halley, 42, of Santee; William Barnes, 57, of San Diego; and Melanie Barnes, 46, of San Diego. NBC reported that all were transported to UCSD with major injuries and that another motorcyclist, John Lombardo, 55, of Lakeside, was taken to the El Centro Regional Medical Center with minor injuries.

matthew.hall@uniontrib.com • (619) 293-1335 • Twitter @SDuncovered