in memory
They are new friendships framed by tragedy.
If they could only all go back in time and change the outcome of the worst days of their lives — bicycle-motor vehicle collisions that happened in three consecutive years, 2006, 2007 and 2008 — they would.
Then they wouldn’t all be standing here on this bike path by Churchill High School, their eyes welling with tears.
“I think anyone who’s lost a loved one to an accident wishes they could turn back the clock,” said Susan Minor, whose son, David Minor, 27, was killed June 2, 2008, in downtown Eugene when he was struck by a motorist at the intersection of 13th Avenue and Willamette Street.
But now, all she and her husband, Dr. John Minor, can do is channel their grief into something positive, she said.
The Minors, along with Dr. Tom Jefferson and Marina Hajek, have joined forces with other community members to help create the Bailey Hill Road Safety Plaza near Churchill High. It will be an educational memorial not far from the spot where Hajek’s 10-year-old son, Vaclav, was killed by a speeding teenage motorist on Aug. 27, 2007, as he attempted to cross the road while pushing his bicycle.
Jefferson’s wife, Jane Higdon, was 47 when she was killed on May 31, 2006, while riding her bicycle with others during a training ride on Territorial Highway southeast of Eugene.
“We (all) want to become involved in something to help reduce the likelihood of something like this happening again,” Susan Minor said.
Vaclav’s death led to the formation of the Bailey Hill Road Safety Committee, which pushed the city to create improvements to Bailey Hill Road between West 18th Avenue and Warren Street. Last summer, a $1.34 million project reduced the stretch of road from four lanes to two and two new crosswalks were installed, one with a pedestrian-activated flashing yellow light, along with landscaped medians.
In August, as the improvements were nearly done, the city’s Public Works department and contractors joined with community members to print the words “Be Careful” in three different languages — English, Spanish and Czech — in the road’s new median. Marina Hajek is a native of Guatamala; her husband, Petr Hajek, is from the Czech Republic. The family moved to Eugene from Pasadena, Calif., just five months before their son’s death.
“It’s not just an issue around my son,” Hajek said. “Many others have died in similar situations. I think it’s the beginning of something else. It’s a cause. We have to deal with it. It’s too many deaths.”
Hajek and those who have worked on the project want to reach out to other families who have lost children and loved ones in motor vehicle collisions, the leading cause of death for youth in both Oregon and nationwide.
They are asking local families to come forward and contribute photographs of their deceased children and loved ones for the June 8 dedication of the memorial plaza, which will be built to form a semicircle on a spot of grass that now lies beyond the softball field that is part of the Churchill Youth Sports Park.
Money has been raised for the $15,000 project, said Tom Schneider, a member of the city’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee and also the Bailey Hill Road Safety Committee. The city provided $4,500 in matching funds through its Neighborhood Matching Grant program, and the Jane Higdon Foundation — established with a more than $1 million settlement with Ireland Trucking Co. of Roseburg — contributed $1,200 for a 3-by-2-foot sign that will be erected at the plaza this month, Schnei-der said.
The Westleigh Homeowners Association contributed $750 and businesses on Bailey Hill Road have made contributions too, Schneider said. Others, such as Home Depot and Rexius Sustainable Solutions, are donating materials for the plaza construction, he said.
“I just think it’s kind of a heartwarming story,” said Schneider, who himself sustained a “life-changing” head injury on his bicycle in 1997 during a triathlon training ride in Southern California. Schneider was referring not only to those who have pitched in after losing loved ones, but also to local schoolchildren who have contributed to the project.
Students from McCornack Elementary School, where Vaclav attended, met three times in March and April at the Churchill High library to come up with more than 80 safety phrases to put on the memorial plaza’s sign. Phrases such as, “Speeding’s not cool, so follow the rules,” and “One careful look, one careful drive, can save many lives,” and “A car’s a car, don’t go as fast as a shooting star.” About a half-dozen phrases will be selected.
The side of the sign facing the road will read, “Start Seeing Everyone” with the logo of “Eye to Eye,” a national campaign that promotes awareness and respect for shared paths and roadways.
The other side will say, “What’s the No. 1 cause of death for Oregon youth? It’s not guns … it’s not drugs … it’s not cancer … It’s motor vehicle crashes. Be Seen. Be Safe. Please Drive Carefully.” The sign will feature a graphic of the state of Oregon, filled in with photographs of McCornack students who contributed their phrases to the project.
“If not for Tom Schneider, this project would not have been possible,” Marina Hajek said. “He was the one who had the contacts.”
Scheider refuses to take much credit for the project, even though he said he had been writing letters to the city for years about the dangers on Bailey Hill Road before the crash that took Vaclav’s life.
“It just didn’t need to happen,” Schneider said. Given his own experiences with injuries as a bicyclist, and the fact that his wife’s brother, Daniel Pillsbury, was killed by a drunken driver in the 1960s in Long Beach, Calif., when he was 17, Schneider said his heart went out to the Hajek family. He credits Marina Hajek with the vision to make the memorial happen, and to give it an educational focus.
“She needed someone to guide her through the process,” Schneider said. “I just wanted to help her bring something good out of this. Marina’s desire to not ever have this happen to another parent is really the focus.”
Schneider also knew Higdon, a faculty researcher at the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. Both Schneider and Higdon were triathletes and members of the Eugene Triathlon Club in the mid-1990s.
For the Minors, it has been helpful to connect with others who have experienced the same sudden tragedy.
“It’s a select club,” Susan Minor said. “And it’s not a club anyone wants to be a part in. But there’s no one else who can understand what that feels like.”
Mark Baker has been a journalist for the past 25 years. He’s currently the sports editor at The Jackson Hole News & Guide in Jackson, Wyo.