By Patric Hedlund

A local woman was killed Friday, June 26 as her RV descended the slope of Glacier Drive in the Pine Mountain community, apparently without brakes. The RV gathered momentum (to about 50 miles per hour, witnesses and investigators report). It crossed Voltaire Drive and sailed through a telephone pole as the vehicle took flight over an embankment.

The RV landed in a nearly unrecognizable heap against the opposite hillside, about 200 feet away. The driver was not wearing a seat belt.

Irene Smith-Quick, 67 was killed. A boxer dog thrown out of the RV survived.

Calls to 911 started about 1:40 p.m. California Highway Patrol, Kern County Sheriff’s deputies, Kern County Fire Engine 58 and workers from Mil Potrero Mutual Water Company responded. The RV narrowly missed the propane tank to an adjacent home. At least four additional propane canisters inside the RV were leaking loudly as neighbors responded, they reported.

Wade Cadwallader, a neighbor who works with the water company, and his roommate Ryan Simmons ran to try to give aid to the driver. She was deceased. He found the propane leaking, referring to the canisters as “bombs waiting to go off.” He turned off the valve to the large propane tank adjacent to the house, then helped a colleague from the water company confirm that the fire hydrant across the street was functioning. Firefighters inactivated the smaller propane canisters.

“If there was just one spark, the whole hillside and a lot of houses could have gone up in flames,” Cadwallader said.

A Leader in Local Ham Radio

Quick was a leader in the PMC Ham Radio Club. The group was meeting at the Mount Cerro Noroeste summit for an annual weekend campout and practice exercise with the American Radio Relay League’s Field Day.

Quick and her husband had reached level three in FCC certification. The June 26-28 campout is a practice. Radio clubs from remote areas of the country make contact with other ham radio operators to exercise emergency preparedness.

David Koskenmaki, a PMC club member, said those who were already at the campground were heartbroken when they finally learned of the accident.

“Irene did a lot of the nitty gritty work to keep the club going. She had such a great sense of humor and was so enthusiastic,” he said, expressing the shock and grief felt by the group.

Photo captions:

A runaway RV descended steep Glacier Drive, gathering speed quickly. It crossed Voltaire Drive, hit this 30-inch berm and went through the telephone pole to come to rest 200 feet away.

Irene Quick was a Level III ham radio enthusiast, a mainstay of the local Pine Mountain ham radio club. Members were griefstricken to learn of the accident.

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This is part of the July 3, 2015 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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