Bicylist’s death leaves a deep scar
The roadside memorial is visible for only a moment to cars zipping up Coast Highway through Laguna Beach.
A white bicycle locked to a signpost surrounded by a crowd of white-flower arrangements. A white T-shirt signed with remembrances draped to the handlebars and frame. Two photos of a smiling man in riding gear taped over the sign above.
A week after the accident, the flower petals are fading but the impact will be felt for a lifetime. Many life times. John Colvin — husband, father, brother, son and a friend of many — isn’t here anymore.
The “Ghost Bike” memorial marks the spot where the 55-year-old Laguna Beach cyclist was hit from behind while traveling into the sunset on the evening of June 17. Riding on North Coast Highway at Emerald Bay, Colvin didn’t see what hit him. He was thrown onto the hood of a northbound car, his weight smashing the windshield and leaving a massive dent in the roof.
The driver of the white Toyota Prius continued for another mile. Colvin was pronounced dead a little more than four hours later at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana.
*
‘Have you heard from your dad?’
“We have a word for it (in the Hebrew faith). John was just a mensch,” said his bride of 27 years, Joan Marcus-Colvin. “He was a good man. A kind person. He would do anything to help anybody. In 30 years with John, I think he was unable to speak ill of anyone.”
Marcus-Colvin was driving home late from work the night of the accident and couldn’t help noticing several police cars still at the scene. She wasn’t aware of what had happened. Because her husband was an avid bike rider training for a triathlon, her spousal sense was tingling.
“I walked in (to the house). I looked at (her daughter) Natalie and said, ‘Have you heard from your dad?’” Marcus-Colvin recalled of the moment her life was forever changed. “I saw the bike was gone. It was way too late. It’s 8:45 at that point. And I just … I knew it. It just was one of those instincts. So I picked up the phone and called 911.”
Her worst fear confirmed, Marcus-Colvin and her daughters — Natalie, 22, and Shayna, 19 — were able to reach the medical center a short time before John died. Compounding the pain, Natalie had also seen the accident scene, earlier, when emergency workers were still performing CPR on the victim, who she did not realize was her father.
“I’m thankful we have two emotionally healthy girls,” said Marcus-Colvin, adding the three of them will seek grief counseling. “There’s a lot of trauma. I wish I could take the section of PCH [Pacific Coast Highway] out of our life right now, but we can’t.”
*
‘What do you do about it?’
John’s family and friends say there are still too many questions. Why did the driver not stop at the scene? Why has the Laguna Beach Police Department not released the name of the 19-year-old male driver? What caused the collision that cost John Colvin his life?
Marcus-Colvin was told it will be a month before she gets even a preliminary report. She’s resigned to the possibility that it could be several months before a full report is filed.
“There isn’t anger at this point,” said Lance Heck, 54, a close friend of the Colvin family. “You know, there might be. I know the whole question of what exactly happened needs to be answered, but we’ll get those answers soon. Right now we just need to think of remembering John and rallying around his family.”
“The big question I have, I think everybody else has, is what do you do about it?” asked Mark Whaley, another close friend and mountain biking buddy of John’s. “It seems to be much more prevalent every year.”
“He was Mr. Safe,” said Marcus-Colvin, describing her husband’s road training habits. “I mean, this man was impeccable about his safety.” She added John was wearing his road ID when he was hit — and she’s been wearing it ever since.
“You try to be cognizant of the traffic and as careful as possible,” Whaley said. “I don’t see any way he could have got around this other than not being on the road.”
“It’s just amazing to me that with all the cyclists, there’s not a dedicated bike lane,” noted Heck of the narrowing of the coastal highway in front of the Emerald Bay subdivision. “I have concerns with the bushes not being trimmed there. It creates a hazard too.”
*
‘Happiest he’s ever been’
His legacy will be much more than a roadside memorial on Coast Highway. John Colvin’s positive disposition is very much alive in the wife and daughters he left behind.
Marcus-Colvin is thankful her husband had overcome a lot of work-related stress and was “probably the happiest he’s ever been” in the last six months of his life. Fit and healthy, John completed several marathons and a half-triathlon and was training for a full ironman event in Louisville this August.
Natalie recently graduated from Emory University in Atlanta and is scheduled to start law school this fall. Shayna is heading into her second year at Savannah College of Art and Design, also in Georgia.
“His kids are really amazing, and we’ve already seen they’ve got a lot of his traits, his patience and his positive outlook,” Heck noted. “So even though John’s gone, we know he’ll live on through his family and we’ll never forget him.”