Point Reyes Light - October 10, 2002
Startled motorist loses control, kills bicyclist
By Andrea Blum
A bicyclist from Novato died Saturday when he was struck by a car on the Point Reyes-Petaluma Road at Nicasio Reservoir.
Highway Patrol officers told The Light Frank Joseph Merino, 42, was struck by an out-of-control car and killed about 11:45 a.m. The accident occurred on the long straightaway at the north side of the lake. Both Merino and the car, which was driven by Katherine Lynn Hoskins, 43, of Petaluma, were westbound, officers said.
Officers gave this account of the fatal collision. Just before a pickup truck pulling a horse trailer passed the bicyclist, who was on the shoulder of the road, a car safely passed the truck and horse trailer.
The next car behind the trailer was driven by Hoskins, and when she failed to pass, the motorist behind her began passing both Hoskins’ car and the horse trailer. The pass was legal as well as safe, the Highway Patrol later said.
Didn’t see other car
However, as the third car went by her, Hoskins decided to pass the horse trailer, and the driver of the third car gave an immediate honk. Hoskins "didn’t see the other driver, so she started a lane change," explained CHP Officer Larry Goodman. "After she heard the honk, she was startled and veered off quickly towards the right and made contact with the wheel of the horse trailer."
Hoskins’ out-of-control car struck Merino just as the truck pulling the horsetrailer passed the bicyclist. Merino "was on the hood for about 80 feet and was thrown to the side of the road," officer Goodman reported.
The driver of the truck pulling the horse trailer, Henriette Brown, 46, of Davis, told officers that she felt the impact of the car hitting her trailer and glanced back in time to see Merino being catapulted into the air.
Broke through guardrail
What happened next is still being determined, but it appears that Hoskins then hit her accelerator instead her brakes, continued briefly along the right shoulder, veered across the Point Reyes-Petaluma Road in front of the truck, broke through a guardrail, and ended up at the edge of the reservoir, the CHP said. "If the water level was higher, she would have landed in the water," said officer Goodman.
Paramedics from the Point Reyes Station and Nicasio firestations freed Hoskins from her car by cutting off the roof, and she was airlifted to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital but released later that day.
The Highway Patrol this week was still investigating the collision.