Fairfield teen killed on bicycle trip

NORRIDGEWOCK – Brendan Batson, 16, of Machenzie Avenue, Fairfield, was killed instantly Saturday afternoon when struck by a pickup truck while riding his bicycle on Route 201A. The crash happened just north of the Father Rasle Road intersection.

Batson, an avid long-distance cyclist, was completing the final leg of a 71-mile trip with a family friend. The pair had traveled from Fairfield to Solon and were returning to Fairfield when the crash occurred.

Batson was featured in a story in the Bangor Daily News a year ago when he completed an identical cycling trip to raise $1,040 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. He said at the time that he was prompted to raise money for the organization after he saw what a trip to Walt Disney World in Florida meant to a young neighbor with leukemia.

Accompanying Batson on his ride Saturday was a family friend, Darryll Zahner, 46, also of Fairfield. She was uninjured in the accident, according to Lt. Carl E. Gottardi II of the Somerset County Sheriff’s Department.

Gottardi would not say whether the teen was wearing a helmet.

He said he did not believe that this trip was a fund-raiser. “He just loved to ride,” said the officer.

The truck’s operator, Kurtis Johnson, 28, of Madison, and his two passengers were not injured. Johnson was driving a 1985 GMC pickup that was hauling a trailer carrying a stock car. Gottardi said the group was on the way to Unity Raceway.

Gottardi said the point of impact appeared to be the passenger side hood and grille. He said that the vehicles, including the trailer and the bicycle, were impounded while his investigation into the crash continues.

He said that once the cause of the accident is determined, further information would be released. “We have interviewed witnesses and those involved and are still putting it all together,” he said.

The accident was reconstructed by Officer Bryant Laverdiere of the Fairfield Police Department.

Batson was about to complete his sophomore year at Lawrence High School in Fairfield.

Gottardi said counseling would be provided at the Fairfield schools when students return from the holiday break on Tuesday. He had been in contact with a school counselor Saturday night, he said, to assist in that process.

Also assisting at the accident were Somerset County Deputies Michael Knight, Paul York, Milton Porter and Lt. William Crawford, as well as Chief Deputy Ronald Moody, Officer Keith Bigger of the Madison Police Department and Somerset County Assistant District Attorneys Evert Fowle and Tracey Devoll.