Bomber well-known in recreation, business circles

PHILOMATH — Authorities said their investigation into Thursday morning’s fatal accident between a bicyclist and a log truck will continue into next week.

Edward “Ed” Paul Bomber, 48, died at the scene of the accident near the intersection of Chapel Drive and 13th Street. According to the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, rain-slickened roads might have been a factor, but so far it does not appear that any laws were broken.

“We’re investigating, but at this point we don’t have any evidence that it was a failure to yield (on the part of the truck),” Sheriff Diana Simpson said. “There’s evidence to suggest that the truck did not hit the bicyclist,” she added.

Preliminary reports indicated that Bomber and the driver of the log truck, Robert A. Phinney, age 54, of Siletz, might have simply misjudged the distance between them as both turned onto Chapel Drive, where the crash occurred shortly after 7:30 a.m., just east of the 13th Street intersection in Philomath.

Bomber, a husband and the father of four children ages 6 to 12, was an employee of Hewlett-Packard Co. An active triathlete, he also was co-owner of Northwest MultiSports in downtown Corvallis. His sudden death has left many in the community reeling, and the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, which is leading the investigation, has received numerous calls from concerned residents, Simpson said Friday.

“We are doing a complete and thorough investigation,” she said. “I myself am a runner, and I’ve had those experiences on the road with motorists who tend to not be as courteous as they possibly could.”

Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson said the investigation is a top priority.

“This is a horribly tragic event,” Haroldson said. “Personally, I was out at the scene myself within the hour of the incident. I have stayed in close communication with the sheriff’s office. They are continuing their own investigation and forwarding their findings to me so that I can conduct a methodical review and decide what action we’ll take next.”

“We have witnesses that we’ve interviewed, witnesses that we will be interviewing, physical evidence that we’ve gathered and observations of the scene,” Haroldson said. He cautioned people not to jump to conclusions.

“When you have something like this that has such a profound effect on the community — it’s a tremendous loss — there is a natural desire to know what happened. And when you are conducting an investigation, you can’t disclose those details,” he said. “As a result, when there are gaps in information people start making assumptions about what happened, and that’s natural.

“Some of the assumptions we’ve already seen is that this was a case like so many others that had a speeding vehicle that strikes a bicyclist. There is no evidence to indicate that at all,” Haroldson said.

Five of Bomber’s closest friends and his business partner, Gordon Cummings, met Friday afternoon downtown at Squirrel’s Tavern to raise a toast to his memory.

The Gazette-Times will publish an article Monday about other remembrances by Bombers’ many friends and associates in the wake of his death.