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Family seeks answers after fatal crash
By: JO MORELAND - Staff Writer
VISTA ---- Anthony "Tony" Nino and his grieving parents are seeking answers where there may be few satisfactory ones after a loved one died this week in a motorcycle crash.
Tony Nino, 23, is the older brother of Kyle Nino, 18, who was fatally injured Thursday morning when his speeding motorcycle slammed into the rear of a slower-moving pickup truck on eastbound Highway 78 in San Marcos.
Kyle Nino was pronounced dead a short time later at Palomar Medical Center in Escondido.
Since then, Tony Nino said, he and his parents have been coping with questions raised by witnesses. They include whether Kyle was speeding and if another vehicle struck the motorcycle first.
"I know the investigation will bring out the truth," Tony Nino said Friday in an emotional interview near his Vista home. "I'm not trying to change the truth. I just don't want them to say it's his fault if it wasn't."
And, he said, the grieving family wants people to know that Kyle Nino was an experienced rider as well as a compassionate young man who cared for others.
"Kyle was the kind of person that would welcome anybody into his house, trust everybody, as long as you showed a good personality," said Josue Villegas of Vista, a friend of Kyle's, later by phone. "You could always count on him."
Villegas said he will miss hanging out at Kyle's home, hearing him laugh and his "unforgettable smiles."
Tearful at times, Tony Nino said he and his brother attended a four-day motorcycle riding school taught by the Department of Motor Vehicles at Palomar College when Kyle was 16.
It cost several hundred dollars and they rode with professionals there, he said.
Nino said he gave up motorcycle riding after a severe injury crash two years ago on Palomar Mountain, and he wasn't happy when his younger brother bought the black 2005 Yamaha YFZ RX last month.
"I told him I just wanted him to learn from my mistakes," the brother said.
Kyle told him, Nino said, that he would have to learn about life from his own mistakes.
On Thursday morning, he said, his father awakened his brother as usual in time to get to work by 8 a.m., not 7 a.m. as authorities originally thought. Kyle was a delivery driver for a tire company in Escondido, Nino said.
Witnesses said that Kyle Nino was traveling at 100 mph or more, weaving in and out of traffic and splitting lanes, Officer Tom Kerns, California Highway Patrol spokesman, said Friday.
Kerns said splitting lanes isn't illegal, but it may be a problem if speeding, traveling too fast for conditions, and unsafe lane changes or turning movements take place.
"We rely pretty heavily on numerous witnesses," Kerns said about the motorcycle crash investigation. "We're not talking about one or two. At this point we are certain that he was going at extreme high speed, over 80."
He said a driver who also rides motorcycles and is familiar with their speed estimates said she was traveling at 65 mph. in an eastbound lane.
"He passed me like I was standing still," Kerns quoted from the unnamed woman's statement.
In addition to other evidence that is still under investigation, he said, the motorcycle's tachometer numbers were high.
"There's a big dent in that (pickup's) tailgate," Kerns continued. "Somebody has to be going pretty fast to do that much damage when both vehicles are moving."
As far as any vehicle hitting the motorcycle, he said, "we have no evidence at all from witnesses that there was anybody else involved."
After Kyle was taken to Palomar Medical Center, his distraught mother arrived at the crash scene. Kerns said investigating Officer Sam Shockley drove her, using his patrol car's lights and sirens, to the hospital.
"She wanted to get there before he died," Kerns said. "He died before she could get there."
While he helps his parents plan Kyle's cremation and memorial service, Tony Nino said he deals with memories of his brother, who attended Vista schools.
Kyle was always helpful, a mechanic who belonged to a car club and a motorcycle group, and a good artist, Nino said.
"For Mother's Day he drew a huge rose for his mom that was like a professional drawing," the older brother said. "We wanted him to be an artist, but he wanted to work on cars, things like that."
Nino said some of his brother's many friends are in the military and fighting in Iraq. They're devastated, he said.
"I sit in his room," Nino said. "I want him back. I just want an answer ---- why didn't he get a chance to learn from his mistakes?"
The family is asking people who saw the crash to call them at (760) 415-8999.
Contact staff writer Jo Moreland at (760) 740-3524 or
jmoreland@nctimes.com.
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