KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
By Elliott Cohen / SCVNews.com
A 24-year-old man from Leona Valley was killed Saturday morning when he lost control of his motorcycle on San Francisquito Canyon Road.
Officer Monica Posada of the California Highway Patrol identified the victim as Leonard Rohaley II.
According to the CHP report, Rohaley was riding a 2006 Yamaha R-1 sport motorcycle at a high rate of speed at 11:44 a.m. when he failed to negotiate a sweeping left curve near Stator Lane, about six miles north of Copper Hill Drive.
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The motorcycle ran off the roadway and down an embankment. The rider was ejected, coming to a rest in a dirt ravine.
The CHP report said a witness and several passing motorists stopped to render aid and were administering CPR when Highway Patrol officers and paramedics from Los Angeles County Fire Station 156 arrived at the scene.
Attempts to revive Rohaley were unsuccessful and he died at the scene.
Posada said he was wearing a helmet and riding jacket at the time of the crash.
Although Posada could not confirm it, witnesses at the scene said Rohaley was traveling in a group with six other riders, and that he was going about 100 mph when he lost control of the bike.
This canyon has been the site of so many deaths. I just watched “Chinatown” again and I am reminded of the St. Francis dam failure in 1928 when a 55′ wall of water took 425 lives including many of the workers who built the dam. Good bye Mr. Rohaley. You have joined the many who came before you.
I’m a cyclist and was riding along San Francisquito Canyon Road about two years ago when I came across a lady standing along the edge of the road, so I stopped. A man, who I assume was her husband, was on the steep slope above tending to a cross. I figured it was there to mark someone they had lost and I asked who it was. The lady said it was where her son had died a few years ago in a motorcycle accident. I didn’t know this lady, but I felt compelled to ask her, “Can I give you a hug?” She nodded yes and I did. I didn’t want to intrude on them, as I normally would never do something like that, but I felt a deep sense of loss for her son being gone. I hope this gesture, as small and insignificant as it was, helped her at that moment. I still think about them from time to time and hope they find peace.
It did help. I know this family well, their son was my best friend. From the bottom of my heart; Thankyou for the gesture.