I will venture a guess that alcohol, drugs and/or speed were a huge contributing factor to this fatal accident. Chief Burns should have an officer actually patrol this section of the city to crack down on the under aged night parties, speed contests and other illegal activities that often occur at night. The long response time for police and fire to the foothills did not help the victim of this accident.

The article states that the accident occurred in San Mateo County. Not Palo Alto or even Santa Clara County. Why do you suggest that Palo Alto allocate one of the few on-duty police to patrol that very remote area in the middle of the night?

Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve is on the west side of Skyline Blvd, but Page Mill Road ends on the east side of Skyline Blvd.

excuse me the young man you are refurring to in this article was not a drinker i knew him personnaly he was an all around good guy he mite have been speeding in not sure about that i wasnt there last night so i cant say if he was speeding or not but i also agree with dave that the police should patrol that area more often cause of inncidents like this if they where closer by he mite have had a chance but its understandable that the police officers have other things they need to take care of but having it patroled would be nice so if ever another inncident like this occurs

I listened to this go down last night. Poor guy was on the phone with dispatch, waiting forever for PAPD, San Mateo and medics to get to him. I knew things were getting bad when they called for the chopper. Sorry to hear he didn't make it. The initial call said the vehicle was flipped over.

qq

I was up on Skyline last night. Yes he was driving like an ass. He almost crashed into the side of the hill once. Not surprised that he ended up crashing. It is unfortunate that he lost his life.

Why didn't they send someone from the Kings Mountain fire station? Or the fire station on Skyline near Hwy 9? Those are both faster than driving up the hill from Palo Alto to Skyline.

And aren't there park rangers living in Skyline Ridge that could have helped?

[Portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff.] [A]s a resident of Page Mill Road I'm tired of seeing and hearing "togue" racers squealing around turns and running through neighbors' fences night after night after night. Only a matter of time until they kill someone besides themselves. They think they're very cool. They post pictures and videos online. They wipe out and then lie to the investigating officers, saying "an animal ran out in front of me." Then brag about that on their web sites. Just google "togue Page Mill Road". Or "Nor Cal Racers". I've called CHP, Santa Clara Sheriff, Los Altos Police AND Palo Alto Police. None of them will accept jurisdiction.

Make that "touge". It's pronounced like togue.

Here's an example of one of their posts:

Web Link

"Thought this might be a worth while thread to post where you see cops on the "mountain passes" aka touge.

Just got pulled over after a long togue. Nice mellow drive. Cop spotted me here with no front plate at the END of the run from 92/35 all the way to 9 and back then down Page Mill Road right before 280 to head back to teh pad. We cooperated with the man and didn't even give me a ticket. Happened at 2:17AM. My radar/laser detector didn't go off so I know he wasn't trying to aim at my plate, plus his radar was mounted in the car (not laser a then). Ask me how I know cause we were put in the back of the car.

Web Link

Would be nice if anyone else had any run-ins or know any exact hot spots and to post them. Just in the woods. This thread is not so people can drive initial d style, just avoid the fuzz."

And another one from the same site:

"hey, do you touge down page mill or on 35? Me and my friends roll through there on kind of a regular basis... anyways we usually meet up at the begining of 35 theres a parking lot and wait out letting the cars go through making sure there aren't any cops then we drive mellowish until we come to about where Woodside road is and there might be a cop there once you're past there you should be fine until you get to that wide open space (top of the world) there might be a cop or two there and then you should be home free until you finish page mill thats usually our run. I roll around with a bunch of 240's so i'm pretty sure i'd look alot more hot than you guys in just one car...we usually don't get pulled over after we leave woodside weird that you did"

"I say if you're not tired and don't mind staying up a couple more hours, don't consent to a search. My bro's a cop here in the bay area and he said just don't be scared. Cops will threaten you but can't do shit. Even if there were reports of kids touge'ing down page mill and your tires are bald as f*** and your car is all hot and you look like a drifter, there's no proof."

You all do something stupid like speeding on mountain roads, it catches up to you sooner or later. Stupid is, stupid does...
Grow up and live.

Does the Skylonda Century Club still exist? I think that was their name. To get inducted into the club, you have to drive 100mph along Skyline Blvd. from Hwy 84 to Hwy 9 and back. An ex-boss of mine was a volunteer fireman at the Kings Mountain station and he told me he had to pick up the pieces the guys who didn't make it.

Most drivers want to drive safely and arrive home to their family in one piece. One of the tougers (sp?) could kill or maim innocent people by his/her thoughtless driving.

Sure the one killed may have been a "good guy", but that does not excuse him putting others in harms way. It's too bad he had to pay the supreme penalty for his actions, but others are now safer.

The sheriff's department is responsible for patrolling unincorporated sections of a county. Committing an officer full time to that area to save a rogue (not touge) driver who gets into trouble is a waste of taxpayer's money.

let's put speed bumps up there --that'll slow em down

Speed bumps actually could be a very good mode for that stretch, and it doesn't cost too much either.

I went up to the accident seen yesterday on my motorcycle, the accident occurred about one mile south of Skyline. There were no skid/break marks and the accident happened on a windey section of road, it would have been difficult to go much over the posted speed limit. The car was only off he road about 15 feet and looked like it only grazed a tree. Some of you that posted here should not assume what happened. The Road is so full of curves in the area of the accident it would be nearly impossible for the Sheriff's office to set up radar, or see what a driver is doing in such a windey area. In fact there is no room for a Sheriffs car to even be on the side of the road watching. I felt real bad and sorry that a life was taken as I viewed the area that the accident occurred less that 12 hours after it had happen. My prays go out to the family and friends. It didn't look like speed was a factor to my unprofessional eyes.

Page Mill Road is entirely north of Skyline. Did this crash really happen on Page Mill Road?

what a poorly reported story-
we don't even know where the crash was.
Page Mill or Alpine?
San Mateo or Palo Alto?
Somebody needs to go to journalism school,
and try reporting the basic facts, like who, what,
WHERE, when...
Don't forget, it has been foggy every night, and this
means the roads are SLIPPERY WHEN WET!

it must make too much sense to set up a controled environment for these racers. Save so much money and lives and stress by having a place where they can speed and not hurt anyone.
charge for driving and watching and make a business out of it.

or we can just bitch about it after the fact.
anyone??

Hey Alex,
we already do. It's called NASCAR.
Should we have a space for cockfighting too?

The accident happened a mile East give or take of Skyline on "PAGE MILL ROAD"!

A mile east of Skyline would be near Montebello Open Space Preserve and Los Trancos Open Space Preserve? Skyline Ridge OSP, which is mentioned in the original article, is west of Skyline.

The area around Montebello is mostly narrow and winding. Hard to believe that anyone would be driving fast enough to run off the road. It is hard enough to stay in your lane when you're obeying the speed limit.

Thanks for the update/lowdown bbq man.
He must have been coming down the steep hill where the road makes
a sharp left turn and lost it on the corner.
I know somebody who used to catch air in his car coming down
the hill there, and he is crazy, but he handled it.
The fog/wet roads may have been a factor.

The background for North, South, East and West in the news story.

Palo Alto Police and Fire Depts have traditionally referred to North as point towards Menlo Park/San Francisco, East as pointing towards the bay, West as pointing towards the Pacific ocean, and South as pointing towards Mountain View/San Jose. The justification may have something to do with the two freeways in Palo Alto, Hwys 101 and 280 are referred to as 'North' towards San Francisco and 'South' towards San Jose.

Every other agency surrounding Palo Alto uses magnetic bearings as directions and on mutual aid calls, each agency gets confused with direction.

Maybe it is time to correct the odd declination and use real magnetic bearings for directions.

The accident happen on Page Mill road, about 1 mile below Skyline. The young solo driver was just going too fast and hit a tree.
The Palo Alto paramedics met Lifeflight at the Montebello open space with the driver.

It happed just a little south(a few steps) of 35000 page mill rd. He was headed north towards the freeway. It wasn't wet or very foggy. He wasn't. When i walked up to the car, it was in third gear. Too much speed, new coilovers, and mismatched azenis(new compount up front, old in rear), and lets not forget that dip....at least all these things caused the accident if not moar.

He was a good and sober man. He just always had to be faster....

I was there behind him when it happened. It was a blind right turn and he was a ways in front of me. I saw him hit the dip, hit the turn, the car looked funny going though the corner, he was out of my sight for a second, and then i come around the corner with his car just inches away from the white line facing where he was coming from.

People are always going to hot dog. the dip needs to be fixed regardless of how anyone is driving through. imagine a local Suburban filled with soccer players and a mom....It would easily upset that vehicle traveling at the speed limit.