Biker community mourns loss of a brother, plans fundraiser to aid young widow and infant son

“This is by far the most dangerous time of the year for us. It’s that way at the start of every season,” LJ James, veteran biker and member of the Road Reapers motorcycle club in Riverhead said today as he reflected on the death Monday of his Road Reapers brother, David De Carle.

DeCarle was ejected from his motorcycle after hitting a pothole on winter-ravaged Reeves Avenue and losing control. He succumbed to his injuries at Peconic Bay Medical Center. He was just 36 years old and left behind a wife and 20-month old son.

“There’s a lot of sand on the road everywhere,” James said. “And then there are the potholes.”

Crumbling roads at the tail end of winter and in the early days of spring are hazards for all drivers, but for bikers especially. “Pothole” is actually something of a euphemism for some of the craters that can be found in roadways this time of year.

After an especially harsh winter, this year is especially bad, James said.

“It’s bad all over Long Island, not just Riverhead,” said James, who lives in Patchogue. “It’s everywhere. In fact there are areas that are so much worse than what we have here.”

Ironically, DeCarle had just been warning fellow Road Reapers about the potholes, James said. “A week or so ago he was warning everybody, ‘Watch out for potholes. It’s dangerous out there.’”

DeCarle was a veteran rider and a careful rider, James said.

“Guys are anxious to get out after a few months off the road. As soon as the weather warms up, that’s what you want to do,” he said. “But it’s really the worst time to ride.”

Riverhead Police said DeCarle, who lived in Aquebogue, was eastbound on Reeves Avenue about four-tenths of a mile west of Doctors Path when he hit a pothole and lost control of his motorcycle. They were called by a motorist who came upon the accident scene just before 4:30 Monday afternoon.

Riverhead Highway Superintendent George Woodson is reeling from the accident. He laments “a lack of funds to keep up with things.”

“You never seem to get really caught up,” Woodson said glumly. “Potholes are just popping up all over the place,” he said.

Freezing causes cracks in the road. Cracks allow water to infiltrate the paved surface and get underneath the paving. When the water freezes, it lifts the pavement up. The heaving pavement buckles then collapses when subjected to traffic. From there, holes grow bigger as the wheels of cars — and worse, trucks — bump in and out of them. Repeated freeze-thaw cycles make matters all that much worse.

Until “paving season” arrives — late spring and summer — highway crews can only apply patches, which are temporary fixes. Sometimes they’re more temporary than others, like when patchwork gets washed away by a good rain the following day.

Asphalt plants didn’t open on the East End until Monday, Woodson said, so the only way he could get hot asphalt for “hot patch” work was to send trucks to a plant in western Suffolk. That’s what he did last Thursday. But they returned to Riverhead with product that proved to be “garbage,” as Woodson put it. “It didn’t have enough oil content,” he said. “It didn’t work.”

“It’s just so frustrating,” he said.

Woodson has been able to run four “hot box” trucks across town daily since the Speonk plant opened this week. It’s close enough that his crews can make return trips for additional material.

Woodson, who describes himself as “an avid motorcycle rider,” said he won’t take his own bike out on the roads “until we finish sweeping.” And then there are the potholes, he said, echoing James’ words.

“That a life had to be lost over this is just—” Woodson stopped, seeming to search for the right words. “It’s just such a tragedy.”

The fact that it was a fellow biker worsens the blow.

“We look out for each other,” LJ James agreed. “That’s what the biker community is all about — the brotherhood and taking care of each other. People are going to get a glimpse of that this Friday,” James said. “It’s about a large family of clubs that just watch out for each other. It’s an amazing thing to be a part of.”

The Road Reapers club is hosting a fundraiser for DeCarle’s family Friday, March 20 at the clubhouse at 1129 Cross River Drive (Rt. 105) in Riverhead. It begins at 8 p.m. There will be a DJ, raffles and a free-will donation, James said.

Club member Lorenzo Cricchio started a GoFundMe page to benefit the family as well.

“Dave’s family was his life,” James said of DeCarle’s wife Ksenia and son Desmond.

Brian Maggio, a coworker of DeCarle’s at the Bridgeport and Port Jefferson Steamboat Company, where DeCarle worked in food service, described him as “a good guy who worked hard for his young family.” Maggio said DeCarle had recently returned from Arizona, because he was thinking about moving there.

James said DeCarle had decided against it because he loved Long Island, where he’s lived all his life. He loved Riverhead, James said, and loved the North Fork.

“He was a good man, a strong man, someone you liked to be around,” James said.

“When something like this happens, everyone wishes there was someone to blame. But at the end of the day, it’s Mother Nature.”

“I always say you don’t beat Mother Nature,” Woodson said. “You just try to keep up with it. You do the best that you can do.”