Daniel Plummer once wrote to a newspaper editor that he wanted to die while cycling.
Sadly, that statement became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Plummer, 39, a Redwood City-based research scientist, died Jan. 1 on Natoma Road in Los Altos Hills when a eucalyptus tree branch fell on him while he was riding his bike.
“He died doing what he loved to do,” said John Ford, who rode with Plummer on Team Spine, a Northern California amateur road racing team.
“It was tragic and freakish. It was very, very unusual,” said friend and Team Spine member Eric Saltzman, who was riding ahead of Plummer.
The odds of such an accident occurring are “phenomenally low,” Saltzman said. “It was over in a fraction of a second.” Plummer could have escaped the deadly tree if he were just a second faster or a second slower, he added.
Saltzman met Plummer in Team Spine three years ago. “We spent a lot of time riding and traveling in races together.,” he said.
Plummer was “a thoughtful person with a very keen intellect. He was someone you enjoyed spending time with,” Saltzman said. “He was a very giving person, always willing to help others.”
Kerri Kazala, manager of Team Spine, said she found it hard to talk about Plummer’s death.
“We are a family. We lost a brother. We are all devastated and heartbroken,” she said.
Plummer rode with the team since its inception in 2002.
Kazala said the team has been receiving supportive e-mails from the cycling community all over the country. “The support is just phenomenal,” she said. She and four other team members left last week for Walpole, Mass., Plummer’s hometown, to attend funeral services.
Roy Morneau, an independent arborist in Mountain View, remembers the route where the accident occurred.
“I haven’t visited the road in the last six months. I am not sure about the species of the eucalyptus lining the long road,” he said, adding that with eucalyptus, “usually this doesn’t happen. But there are too many variables.”
Sometimes roots may come off due to decay or road improvement work. “But,” Morneau said, “we need to take into account specific information about the specific tree and not make judgments.”
Most eucalyptus trees do not fall, he said, but the fury of Mother Nature combined with variable factors such as wind and the extra weight on branches due to incessant rains may have resulted in the fall of that particular tree.
Team Spine members are planning a memorial ride for Plummer, beginning 9 a.m. Sunday at Foothill College.
For more information, visit www.teamspine.com.
