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Steven Culbertson died late Sunday morning at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, according to Officer Jon Sloat of the California Highway Patrol's Santa Rosa office.
Katy Hillenmeyer, a Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital spokesperson, told Lake County News late Monday that Culbertson died “surrounded by loved ones.” Under privacy laws Hillenmeyer was not authorized to give further details.
The young man's death followed by several hours the deaths of John Maloney, 45, his wife Susan, 42, and their young children Grace, 5, and Aiden, 8, whose Nissan Quest was hit broadside by Culbertson at around 9:20 p.m. Saturday.
Based on its initial investigation, the CHP determined that Culberton allegedly was driving his Mini Cooper more than 90 miles per hour southbound on Lakeville Highway when he clipped the rear end of a Honda CR-V driven by Petaluma resident John Graham, 61.
Culbertson's vehicle continued on, running a red light and hitting the Maloneys' Quest, which was traveling eastbound on Highway 37. The Quest was then pushed into an eastbound traveling Mitsubishi Galant driven by 52-year-old Carrie Rodriguez of Novato.
Rodriguez and her passengers, Liberty Rosario, 42, of Fairfield and Adelaida Nicholas, 53, of Novato, were transported to a Novato hospital with minor injuries, said Sloat. Graham and his passenger, Stockton resident James Parker, weren't hurt.
There had been differing reports over the weekend regarding Culbertson's death.
Sloat said the CHP received a call from the Sonoma County Coroner's Office reporting that Culbertson died at 11:15 a.m. Sunday.
However, several hours later Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital officials continued to report to Lake County News and other media that Culbertson was in care and in critical condition.
The CHP – which spent hours investigating the scene with the help of the agency's Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team (MAIT) – said speed was a factor in the crash.
Sloat said that Culbertson was not being pursued by any law enforcement at the time of the collision.
There was no evidence of alcohol or drugs at the scene, said Sloat.
However, he added, “We're not ruling it out yet.”
A blood sample was taken from Culbertson and submitted to the Department of Justice laboratory. Sloat said it should take about two weeks for those tests to be completed.
Two years ago, a family of five was killed in a fiery crash on Highway 101, said Sloat. That and Saturday's crash are the two worst in his 10 years working in the Sonoma County area, he said.
Culbertson graduated from high school in 2008 and aspired to be a professional race car driver and mechanic, according to his Facebook page.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED.
MIDDLETOWN – On the morning that a preliminary investigation into a Saturday mid-air collision near Middletown was wrapping up, local officials released the names of the two men who died in the crash.
Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office reported Monday that 44-year-old Robert Sean Boylan of Hidden Valley Lake and 63-year-old Harold Harvey Chouinard of Cotati were the crash victims.
Boylan was piloting a Piper PA 25 tow plane and Chouinard was in a Schleicher ASW 27 glider when they collided, according to Eliott Simpson, an aviation accident investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, who remained on the scene Monday morning.
Simpson said that, based on witness reports, both men were approaching the landing strip at Crazy Creek Air Adventures from different directions when the crash occurred.
He said the glider was coming on the right downward leg and the tow plane was the left downward leg, with both circling to land. They hit at the approach end of the runway.
The equipment on both the glider and plane had appeared to be in working order based on Simpson's preliminary onscene investigation.
Bauman reported that sheriff's deputy coroners responded to the scene at about 11:40 a.m. Saturday. Rescue personnel from Cal Fire were already on scene when deputies arrived and both the Federal Aviation Administration and the NTSB had been notified of the collision.
When deputies arrived at the scene, Bauman said they were led to the wreckage, where they found the pilots of both aircraft near their respective crafts. Boylan and Chouinard both were pronounced dead at the scene.
Bauman said that, due to extended response times by the FAA and the NTSB, deputies secured and guarded the crash scene throughout the day and night until both federal agencies could arrive to investigate the cause of the collision the following day.
Autopsies will be scheduled to determine the exact cause of death for both of the pilots, Bauman said.
The two aircraft came to rest in a pasture several hundred yards to the east of the approach end of the landing strip. The plane was sitting about 100 yards to the north of the glider, facing in a northerly direction, while the glider was pointed toward the runway.
On Monday the wreckage remained where it had landed, said Simpson, except that he had the glider turned over so that it was sitting right side up for the purposes of the investigation.
Following the collision the glider had landed on its top and fire personnel cut off the right side wing as they worked to rescue Chouinard, Simpson said.
Both aircraft were surrounded by small debris fields. The wheel of the plane lay about 30 feet from it.
The glider's tail section bore the name “Hal,” for Chouinard, under whose name it was licensed, according to FAA records. The registration certificate was issued in April of 2003.
The tow plane was licensed to Cal Soar Inc., at the same address as Crazy Creek Air Adventures on Grange Road. That certificate was issued in July of 1992, FAA records showed.
Six people, who Simpson said were family members of Boylan, visited the crumpled wreckage of the tow plane early Monday morning. They walked slowly around it and then stood quietly together. As they left the field they declined the request for a comment.
Simpson, who has been doing the investigations for about three years, is an engineer who also is a pilot. Most of the NTSB investigators have a piloting background, he said.
“We have to investigate every single civil aircraft crash,” said Simpson, who is based in Los Angeles. About 15 NTSB investigators are based on the West Coast, he added.
The cause of the crash itself is yet to be determined. Simpson said a preliminary reported will be available within the next five to 10 days, with a final factual report likely to be completed in about six months, although it could take as long as nine months to finish.
That report will then go to Washington, DC, to the full safety board, which will determine the collision's probable cause, Simpson said.
Simpson expected to be at the Middletown crash site until noon on Monday, noting that the onscene portion of the investigation was complete.
“So now it's just recovery,” he said.
The aircraft were recovered later Monday morning and transported to a privately owned storage facility in Sacramento, Simpson said.
The facility, which was hired by the insurance companies covering the aircraft, will store the plane and glider during the investigation, Simpson said.
“They're there in case anything else comes to light,” he said.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
The crash – between a Schleicher ASW 27 glider and a Piper PA 25 tow plane – occurred on Saturday at around 11 a.m. at Crazy Creek Air Adventures in Middletown, as Lake County News has reported.
On Sunday, Eliott Simpson, an aviation accident investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, was on the scene in Middletown, examining the wreckage of the two aircraft.
He said the Federal Aviation Administration also had been on scene earlier in the day.
Based on an evaluation of the wreckage, Simpson said no equipment appeared to be missing from the aircraft.
“Both aircraft appear to be in working order,” said Simpson, noting that such a determination is merely preliminary.
He explained that, based on the investigation so far, it appears that the glider and the tow plane both were approaching the same runway from different directions – the glider coming from the north, with the tow plane on the southern side.
“Witnesses stated that they both appeared to turn toward the runway at the same time,” he said.
Simpson said he will have a preliminary report on the crash prepared within 10 days, but a final report will require about six months of investigation.
He said the report will then go to the full safety board for a final determination.
Simpson said they see glider crashes but “not an excessive amount.”
On Sunday Simpson worked the investigation from the NTSB side alone on Sunday, a situation which he said isn't uncommon, since the agency only has 44 investigators to cover the entire United States.
He said the release of the crash victims' names will be up to the Lake County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff's officials could not be reached Sunday for official confirmation of the pilots' names.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
SONOMA COUNTY – A Sonoma County family died and several others were injured when a local teenager allegedly ran a red light late Saturday, setting off a four-car collision.
The crash occurred at 9:21 p.m. Saturday on eastbound Highway 37 at Reclamation Road in Sonoma County, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Scott Cakebread.
The CHP would not release the names of the fatalities or the driver of the car that hit them to Lake County News, although Bay Area media reported receiving the names from the agency.
The family that died included 45-year-old John Maloney and his wife Susan, 42, of Sonoma and their children Aiden, 8, and Grace, 5.
The man who hit them was identified as Steven Culbertson, 19, of Lakeport.
Conflicting reports were being given about the status of Culbertson, who Cakebread said was transported by helicopter to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.
While some media were reporting Culbertson died Sunday, on Sunday evening Santa Rosa Memorial spokesperson Katy Hillenmeyer said Culbertson was in critical condition. Lake County News could not reach Culbertson's family late Sunday.
Culbertson allegedly was driving a silver Mini Cooper at speeds of more than 90 miles per hour when he ran a red light and hit a Honda CR-V driven by Thomas Graham, 61, of Petaluma, the CHP reported.
The Mini Cooper then hit the Nissan Quest mini van driven by the Maloney family, the CHP said. The Quest then hit a Mitsubishi Galant driven by Carrie Rodriguez, 52, of Novato.
All of the members of the Maloney family were pronounced dead at the scene, Cakebread said.
Rodriguez and her passengers – Liberty Rosario, 42, of Fairfield and Adelaida Nicholas, 53, of Novato – were transported to area hospitals with minor injuries, according to the CHP. Graham and his passenger, James Parker of Stockton, were uninjured.
The CHP said the eastbound lane of Highway 37 was shut down just after 10 p.m. Saturday. At 11:25 p.m. the both directions of Highway 101 to Highway 27 were closed, as were Atherton Avenue to Highway 37 and the stretch of Highway 37 between Highway 131 and Lakeville.
The roadways remained closed until 7:30 a.m. Sunday as the investigation took place. Lakeville Road was shut completely, with travelers urged to take an alternate route. The vehicles involved in the crash were cleared from the scene at around 7 a.m., according to the CHP.
The CHP reported that several vehicles had gone through the closure at high speeds early in the morning.
Caltrans and the Sonoma County Coroner were called to the scene, according to the CHP report. A Caltrans boom truck was requested to assist the CHP with taking aerial photos of the crash scene.
Cakebread said the CHP's Major Accident Investigation Team (MAIT) – which is called out to investigate collisions where two or more deaths are involved – was working on the crash Sunday.
The social networking site Facebook provided information about some of those involved in the crash.
Culbertson's Facebook page said he was a 2008 graduate of Clear Lake High School, with aspirations of being a professional driver and mechanic. It also featured pictures of him driving on race course.
John Maloney's page featured pictures of him, his wife and his young children. While his profile was open to the public, his wife's was not.
He was a 1986 graduate of the University of Georgia, where he received a bachelor's degree in journalist before going on to receive a master's degree in humanities from Dominican University in San Rafael.
Maloney worked at SolarCraft, a solar services company with offices in Novato and Sonoma. SolarCraft's Web site listed Maloney as the company's vice president of sales and marketing, and noted that he had three children.
He noted in an August message to a friend on Facebook that his older daughter, Molly, was heading off to the University of Wisconsin this fall.
Friends left messages on the Facebook page over the weekend in remembrance of the family.
“John and Susan, Aiden and Grace. We all love you and miss you terribly. No words can convey the sorrow we feel at your loss. RIP 11/28/1009,” wrote Ben Delaney.
“Dearest Maloney Family - My heart breaks at the loss your friends and family are feeling right now ... My best wishes go out to them, and perhaps some peace can come from them knowing that you are and always will be together. Much ♥,” Shannon Greene wrote hours after the fatal crash.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
THE US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY HAS DOWNGRADED THIS QUAKE FROM 3.0 TO 2.9 IN MAGNITUDE.
THE GEYSERS – The Geysers area experienced a moderate on Saturday evening.
The quake, first reported to be 3.0 in magnitude but later downgraded to 2.9, occurred at a depth of 1.4 miles at 9:08 p.m. Saturday, according to the US Geological Survey.
The agency reported that the earthquake's epicenter was located two miles northwest of The Geysers, six miles west of Cobb and eight miles west northwest of Anderson Springs.
Five shake reports were submitted to the US Geological Survey – three from Cloverdale, one from Kelseyville and one from The Dalles, Oregon – approximately 759 miles away.
The Geysers area experienced a 3.7-magnitude earthquake on Nov. 24, as Lake County News has reported.
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The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office reported that a 911 telephone call came into the sheriff's dispatch center just after 9 a.m. Sunday reporting that a shooting had occurred in the Chicken Ridge subdivision east of Covelo.
Sheriffs deputies were dispatched to the location where they met up with Covelo Fire Personnel and learned the victim had been shot during a possible home invasion robbery over marijuana, according to the report from Capt. Kurt Smallcomb.
Smallcomb said the victim received serious injuries from the gunshots and was subsequently airlifted to an out of town hospital for major gunshot wounds.
He said deputies learned that at least three suspects had fled the location in a vehicle. The deputies had communication officers radio broadcast a "be on the lookout bulletin" to neighboring law enforcement entities regarding the description of the suspect vehicle.
Just after 10 a.m. Willits Police officers observed the described suspect vehicle and conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle, at which point one of the suspects fled on foot, Smallcomb said.
The two other suspects were being detained and questioned by law enforcement at the time of Smallcomb's report, which was issued Sunday afternoon.
Sheriff's deputies, Willits Police officers and California Highway Patrol officers were continuing the search for the third suspect who fled the car stop on Sunday, Smallcomb said.
He said Mendocino County Sheriff's detectives were conducting an investigation and following up on leads in regards to the incident.
Anyone with information as to the suspects responsible in this case are encouraged to contact the Mendocino County Sheriff's investigative tip line at 707-467-9159.
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