Family seeks public’s help in fatal motorcycle crash west of Old Ridge Route along Highway 138

Last week the editor received a call from a mother whose family is grieving the loss of their youngest son. After awaiting news from a California Highway Patrol investigation of the fatal accident, they now have the report. The family feels the report is incomplete. They hope someone reading this plea may have more information. Here is the letter from Samuel Tongco’s mother, Dinah Tongco, asking for your help.

March 19, 2022
Dear Editor:
 
My son, Samuel John B. Tongco (known as “Sam” to his colleagues and “Jay” to his friends), was in a motorcycle accident west of Old Ridge Route along Highway 138 on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022, at around 4:11 p.m.

He had worked at Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield as an emergency room nurse and had just left from his new job at the Tehachapi State Prison as a registered nurse. He was on his black Harley Davidson motorcycle on his way to Frazier Park to visit his younger sister, Mariel Buller, when an accident happened.

He was only 31 years old.

Our entire family has a Life360 phone app to allow us to see the location of each family member, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That is how we know the crash occurred at 4:11 p.m. February 8. It breaks our hearts that he died alone.

Life is not the same anymore. Losing a child is so painful. He was such a loving, caring and thoughtful son. Our hearts are shattered into pieces. He was excited to become a dad to his first child, due in August of this year, but his life was taken away from us so soon.

He had so much more to look forward to and had a bright future ahead of him. Samuel had been recognized by his supervisors as a gifted teacher. He was providing emergency medical response training to colleagues at his work, and was going into training to become a state instructor.

The CHP report says that…(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

Dinah Tongco with her son, Samuel Tongco. He was killed on Highway 138 near Quail Lake (west of Old Ridge Route Road) on his way to Frazier Park on February 8 at 4:11 p.m. He was going to visit his sister. The family seeks answers to what led to this experienced biker’s death on his black Harley. They hope someone has information.

Older brother Chad, Sam (in vest and tie) and dad Nomar Tongco; Sam with sister Mariel at a Dodgers game; the kids as youngsters, Sam at right; Sam was an RN, and a happy expectant father.

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This is part of the March 25, 2022 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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