A memorial service honoring the Maloney family will be held on Friday, December 4 at 2 p.m. at the Sonoma Community Center.
As grief rocks the small community that is Sonoma, it is obvious that the entire Maloney family was an asset to Sonoma. John Maloney a stand-up businessman, his wife Susan a loving mother to two young children and a committed volunteer on the board of the Sonoma Community Center. These are facts that make it all the more hard for a town to make sense of their deaths in a tragic automobile accident last weekend.
John Maloney, 45, his wife Susan Maloney, 42, and their two young children, Grace and Aiden, all died at the scene when a 19-year-old driver speeding on Highway 37 crashed into their mini-van at the junction of Lakeville Road on Saturday, November 28 at 9:20 p.m., according to the California Highway Patrol. New developments in the case indicate that the teen driver was arrested for drunk driving when he was 17, according to the CHP. Whether alcohol was involved in the fatal crash is still under investigation.
In a statement released by SolarCraft, Bob Smith, John Maloney’s co-worker at SolarCraft and neighbor expressed an indescribable sense of sorrow and loss at work, in the neighborhood and at the children’s school.
“I knew John for about 20 years and he was my best friend, a wonderful father and a very generous man,” said Smith. “You are lucky if you ever have a friend like John.”
Both Maloney children were students at Prestwood Elementary School – Aiden in the second grade and Grace in kindergarten. Linda Tiefenthal, filling in as principal of Prestwood for Beth Wolk said the school brought in a team of grief crisis counselors to help staff and students deal with the tragedy. The group included Barbara Cullen from the WillMar Center for Bereaved Children, Peggy Murray, Prestwood’s counselor, Mary Ann Sacksteader, a counselor from the school district office, Stephanie Jordan, a parent and school psychologist, and two therapy dogs that visited the kindergarten and second grades.
“The students in Aiden’s second grade class wrote letters to him and put them on his desk. It was hard for some of the children but structured activities like this help children feel safe,” said Tiefenthal. “This is an incredibly sad situation for all of us but children don’t have the same response because they don’t have the same life experience as adults. We have to help them return to a routine so they know that everything will be okay.”
Prestwood PTO President Selma Blanusa spoke to the recent string of tragedies that has struck the school community. “Prestwood has had many families suffer terrible loss over the past year and a half. Faced with so much incredible sadness, it is a blessing to be within this caring and supportive environment,” said Blanusa. “Being in a small and tight community allows us to be free with one another – to laugh in good times and to cry and support one another during difficult times like this.”
The Maloney’s were returning from a vacation to Maui on Saturday night. The family decided to come back a day early to spend the last of the Thanksgiving holiday with Molly, 19, John’s daughter from a previous marriage. At the time of the accident, Steven Culbertson of Lakeport was driving a 2009 MINI Copper. His car was speeding south on Lakeville Highway and hit the back of a 2004 Honda CR-V traveling in the same direction, the CHP said. The Honda’s driver and passenger, 61-year-old Thomas Graham of Petaluma and James Parker of Stockton, weren’t injured.
However, at the intersection of, the MINI Cooper hit a 2004 Nissan Quest carrying the Maloney family as it was traveling in the opposite direction – east on Highway 37.
All four members of the Maloney family were pronounced dead at the scene.
Culbertson, who was considered brain dead and on life support, died of his injuries on Sunday night.
