Saddle Tramps Motorcycle Club Crashes, Four Died
November 15th, 2010 | by |Four members of the Saddle Tramps Motorcycle Club died in a road accident Sunday morning. According to CHP Officer Deeann Goudie, the club was celebrating its 10th anniversary Saturday with a ride across the desert.
The members met at 9 a.m. for breakfast in Lakeside before getting on the road, Goudie told The Times. They were riding east on Route 98 near Ocotillo, about 80 miles out of San Diego, when a gold Honda Accord revved up behind them and tried to pass. Authorities believe the Honda driver caused the crash, but the driver fled from the scene.
A white Dodge Avenger coming from the opposite direction swerved to avoid the oncoming Honda, lost control and then crashed into the pack of motorcycles.
Four motorcyclists — including a husband-and-wife team who were riding the same bike — were killed, Goudie said. A passenger in the Avenger was also killed.
CHP officials told the Associated Press on Sunday that the driver of the Avenger, who suffered injuries, was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving. But officials said they don’t consider him responsible for the accident because the Honda forced him off the road.
UPDATE: Saddle tramps motorcycle club president Carl Smith visited his injured friends at the hospital Sunday and said, “I’m pretty sure they’re going to make it, but they’re in pretty bad shape. They’re all in intensive care.”
He also identified the four dead riders as Lance and Amy Heath of Alpine, Bill Miller of Ramona and Tonya Trayer of El Cajon. The Heaths are survived by two young boys and Miller is survived by a wife, daughters and grandchildren, Smith said.
He said Trayer’s husband of 15 years, Wilson, is hospitalized with a broken jaw, a broken hip, a broken pelvis, a broken leg and internal bleeding. Smith said the surgeon that operated on Wilson Trayer said it would be a long recovery. The couple have three children.
Smith said the injuries his surviving friends sustained — when a car avoiding a head-on collision with another car swerved onto the shoulder of the desert highway Route 98, then into the middle of the club’s motorcycle caravan Saturday — are extensive.
He said William Barnes is hospitalized with a punctured lung, a broken hip, a broken ankle and an injured arm; his wife, Melanie Barnes, is hospitalized with a broken pelvis, brain hemorrhaging and internal bleeding, and Kelly Halley is recovering after having her spleen removed Saturday.
“There was a lot of devastation,” Smith said.
Smith said he couldn’t say how Saturday’s tragedy going forward would affect the group, which frequently raises money for community organizations, in part through toy drives at Christmas time.
“It depends on how soon we can put closure to all this, get everybody healthy,” he said. “We’re a very tight-knit bunch. We participate in activities way beyond the motorcycles. We’re family-oriented. We were all one big family. We take care of our own. We will continue to do that.”
