thedrifter
08-24-07, 07:47 AM
Two Marines die in separate motorcycle wrecks
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Aug 23, 2007 20:36:55 EDT
OCEANSIDE, Calif. – Motorcycle crashes in the San Diego area claimed the lives of two Marines over a three-day period, local authorities said.
Capt. Paul E. Quickenton, of Yuma, Ariz., was killed Aug. 20 in a motorcycle crash in San Diego, they said.
Quickenton, 40, was an ordnance officer assigned to Marine Aviation Weapons Tactics Squadron 1 at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, said Capt. Neal Fisher, a spokesman at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif.
Quickenton was on his way to Balboa Hospital at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, Fisher said.
The crash happened just after 8 a.m. in rush-hour traffic on Interstate 8, east of I-5 a few miles north of downtown San Diego, according to the California Highway Patrol. “Traffic slowed down, and he didn’t,” said Officer Brad Behr, a CHP spokesman in San Diego.
Two days earlier, another Marine motorcyclist was killed in a crash on a freeway near San Diego that police blamed on high speed.
The Marine was identified as Cpl. Ryan P. Ricketts, 21, a food service specialist from Boulevard, Calif., said Cpl. Ben Eberle, with the base public affairs office.
Ricketts, who enlisted in 2004 and has deployed to Iraq, was assigned to Combat Logistics Regiment 17 with the Camp Pendleton-based 1st Marine Logistics Group, Eberle said.
The Marine was traveling at “an extremely high rate of speed” on Interstate 805, just south of Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, when he ran into a car. The crash happened at 5:35 a.m., CHP’s Behr said. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The growing popularity of motorcycles has concerned military commanders and law enforcement agencies. Since Jan. 1, at least 15 Marines and 14 Navy personnel have died in motorcycle crashes, according to Naval Safety Center statistics. Some crashes are blamed on loss of control because of high speed or inexperience, while others are caused by collisions with other vehicles.
Recent motorcycle deaths in the San Diego area include a sergeant who died Aug. 4 when he lost control of his motorcycle coming down Highway 78, a mountainous road east of the town of Julian, with several riding buddies.
In the coming weeks, Behr and other CHP officers will talk to Marines and sailors about motorcycle safety and safe driving during regular pre-Labor Day holiday safety stand-down briefings at local military bases.
“They’re doing stuff out there that’s getting them killed,” Behr said. “I speak to them on a constant, consistent basis” about safe driving.
Ellie
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Aug 23, 2007 20:36:55 EDT
OCEANSIDE, Calif. – Motorcycle crashes in the San Diego area claimed the lives of two Marines over a three-day period, local authorities said.
Capt. Paul E. Quickenton, of Yuma, Ariz., was killed Aug. 20 in a motorcycle crash in San Diego, they said.
Quickenton, 40, was an ordnance officer assigned to Marine Aviation Weapons Tactics Squadron 1 at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, said Capt. Neal Fisher, a spokesman at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif.
Quickenton was on his way to Balboa Hospital at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, Fisher said.
The crash happened just after 8 a.m. in rush-hour traffic on Interstate 8, east of I-5 a few miles north of downtown San Diego, according to the California Highway Patrol. “Traffic slowed down, and he didn’t,” said Officer Brad Behr, a CHP spokesman in San Diego.
Two days earlier, another Marine motorcyclist was killed in a crash on a freeway near San Diego that police blamed on high speed.
The Marine was identified as Cpl. Ryan P. Ricketts, 21, a food service specialist from Boulevard, Calif., said Cpl. Ben Eberle, with the base public affairs office.
Ricketts, who enlisted in 2004 and has deployed to Iraq, was assigned to Combat Logistics Regiment 17 with the Camp Pendleton-based 1st Marine Logistics Group, Eberle said.
The Marine was traveling at “an extremely high rate of speed” on Interstate 805, just south of Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, when he ran into a car. The crash happened at 5:35 a.m., CHP’s Behr said. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The growing popularity of motorcycles has concerned military commanders and law enforcement agencies. Since Jan. 1, at least 15 Marines and 14 Navy personnel have died in motorcycle crashes, according to Naval Safety Center statistics. Some crashes are blamed on loss of control because of high speed or inexperience, while others are caused by collisions with other vehicles.
Recent motorcycle deaths in the San Diego area include a sergeant who died Aug. 4 when he lost control of his motorcycle coming down Highway 78, a mountainous road east of the town of Julian, with several riding buddies.
In the coming weeks, Behr and other CHP officers will talk to Marines and sailors about motorcycle safety and safe driving during regular pre-Labor Day holiday safety stand-down briefings at local military bases.
“They’re doing stuff out there that’s getting them killed,” Behr said. “I speak to them on a constant, consistent basis” about safe driving.
Ellie