‘My world stopped’: New Las Vegas ghost bike honors cyclist killed by suspected impaired driver
A white bicycle now rests against a tree to honor the life of Wesley Sterner, a cyclist who was fatally struck by a suspected impaired driver on Nov. 2 in the northwest valley.
Sterner, 77, was a retired Air Force sergeant and Junior ROTC instructor whose cadets saw him as a father figure and credited him for teaching them invaluable life lessons.
The driver, identified by police as Charles Carter, 69, was arrested and faces felony counts of DUI resulting in death and reckless driving resulting in death, court records show. The defense and prosecution are trying to work out a deal to resolve the case, court records also show.
The memorial was placed as the sun set Tuesday by Ghost Bikes Las Vegas, an organization which places white bicycles at sites where bicyclists were killed to raise awareness of cycling safety. Its founder, Pat Treichel, said Wesley Sterner’s ghost bike is the third one they’ve placed this year.
“If we had, really, success, we wouldn’t be doing it anymore,” Treichel said. “That’s our goal, to do such a great job that we never have to do another one. But I don’t know if I see that on the horizon.”
Linda Sterner, Wesley Sterner’s widow, said her late husband got into biking after he retired. Despite getting hit by two other vehicles before Nov. 2 and having numerous heart surgeries, she said only rain could deter Wesley Sterner from getting back on his bike.
“All summer long, he’d get up at like 3:30 in the morning and be home by 8:00,” Linda Sterner said. “I always told everybody that he was my crazy old man.”
Linda Sterner became concerned when her husband hadn’t returned from his morning ride on Nov. 2, and saw his location was stagnant near the intersection of North Shaumber Road and Grand Teton Drive. She said she drove to the area and arrived at the scene of her husband laying lifeless on the road.
“I saw him laying there, with his crippled bike, and my world stopped,” Linda Sterner said, teary-eyed.
‘Thousands of sunrises’
Dozens of people who knew Wesley Sterner through family, bicycling or his community impact gathered Tuesday to sign his ghost bike with messages of love and remembrance. One of those notes came from Shannon Young, a biking buddy of Wesley Sterner, who wrote that he was going to miss their rides together.
Young said he and Wesley Sterner met during the pandemic through the exercise tracking app Strava and instantly hit it off, embarking on lengthy rides in the early hours of the day to avoid the punishing summer heat.
“Every time that sunrise rose over the mountain, he would stop wherever we were and he would take a picture,” Young said. “His camera roll on his phone must have been filled with thousands of sunrises.”
The two rode over 10,000 miles together over the years they knew each other, Young said, and he was always impressed by how far the septuagenarian could cycle. “We must have traveled every inch of pavement in the city,” Young said.
North Las Vegas Councilman Scott Black said he was equally impressed by Wesley Sterner’s stamina after becoming friends with him while cycling through the desert north of North Las Vegasabout seven years ago. Black called on cyclists to “be accountable for their actions” by following traffic laws and riding on safe routes, but also recognized the outsized role drivers have in preventing cyclist deaths.
“He was always high visibility, always lights in front and back of his bike,” Black said. “Wes was doing everything that he was supposed to do and still died because of someone else’s poor choices.”
Contact Spencer Levering at slevering@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0253.
