A 65-year-old Wyoming motorcyclist was killed Monday when a pickup turned left in front of him at a busy Loveland, Colorado, intersection, a collision witnessed from about 15 feet away by a man who says he saw the truck hesitate, then continue into the motorcycle's path.
Duane Brown, 65, died in the Oct. 12 crash at East 29th Street and North Garfield Avenue. Authorities have not said what community in Wyoming Brown is from.
Police said the crash happened shortly after 1 p.m. as the Wyoming man rode a Yamaha motorcycle south on North Garfield Avenue.
At the same time, a 55-year-old Loveland man driving a GMC pickup was heading north and attempting to turn left onto East 29th Street.
The pickup turned in front of the motorcycle, and the Yamaha struck the truck, throwing its rider from the bike, police said.
First responders attempted life-saving measures, but the motorcyclist was pronounced dead at the scene.
‘I Watched The Whole Thing’
Scott McKinney said he had a clear view of the pickup and the approaching motorcycle when the crash unfolded.
It was a clear, sunny afternoon, McKinney said, with dry pavement and long visibility along Garfield.
He watched the pickup enter the intersection to make its left turn.
McKinney said it appeared to pause momentarily, then continue into the motorcycle's path.
At about the same time, something caught McKinney's eye from the direction of the approaching motorcycle — a flash of sunlight.
Seconds later came the impact.
“I saw the debris flying over the top of the hood of the pickup truck, and then I saw the rider hit the pavement,” McKinney told Cowboy State Daily.
McKinney got out and went toward the fallen rider.
He could see through the partially open visor of the man's helmet. The rider's eyes were open, McKinney recalled, but he wasn't blinking or moving.
Nearby, the pickup driver was attempting to get out of his truck, but damage from the collision had jammed the driver's door, McKinney said.
McKinney went back to his vehicle, grabbed a high-visibility vest and began directing traffic around the scene until Loveland police arrived.
Police: Pickup Failed To Yield
McKinney's account closely tracks what Loveland Police said investigators subsequently determined had happened.
Loveland Police said their preliminary investigation determined the pickup driver failed to yield the right of way and caused the fatal crash.
On Wednesday, police told Cowboy State Daily the 55-year-old Loveland man was charged with careless driving resulting in serious bodily injury or death, infliction of serious bodily injury to a vulnerable road user, and operating a vehicle without a fastened safety belt.
Cowboy State Daily submitted a public-records request seeking the driver’s identity but had not received a response before publication.
The department's CRASH Team responded to investigate, and the intersection remained closed for several hours.
Police cautioned that the findings are preliminary and could change as investigators collect and review additional evidence.
McKinney, meanwhile, wanted to make sure he didn't forget what he had seen.
He created a diagram using an aerial image of the intersection, marking the paths of the motorcycle and pickup, as well as the location where he remembered the collision occurring.
He said he made it while the details were still fresh because he thought he might eventually be called to testify about what he witnessed.
‘Everybody Loved Him’
For longtime family friend Mark Carberry, Brown was more than the man on the motorcycle.
Carberry told Cowboy State Daily he had known Brown for more than 40 years.
They met when they were young men working construction, framing and building houses in the same area. Carberry remembers Brown working alongside members of his family in the trade.
The friendship lasted through the decades.
“He was amazing,” Carberry said. “He was a great man, very nice, very humble.”
More than anything, Carberry said, Brown was simply someone people liked having around.
“Everybody loved him who knew him,” he said.
Carberry last saw his old friend Aug. 22, less than two months before the crash, at a party celebrating Carberry's cancer remission at the Mexican Inn in Loveland.
Brown was running late that evening. Carberry remembered getting word from him not to leave before he arrived.
“Don't leave. We're on our way,” Carberry recalled Brown saying, so Carberry waited.
Brown eventually arrived, and the old friends had another chance to sit together and reminisce.
It would be the last time Carberry saw him.
Now, Carberry said Brown's death is a reminder to drivers to look — and then look again — for motorcycles.
“Pay attention for bikers,” he said. “It only takes just a split second for something like this to happen.”
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
