Grim Irony : Motorcyclist Always Followed Rules, but on a Warm Day . . .

Rudolph Palacios was known among his fellow bus drivers at the Orange County Transit District as a stickler for safety.

Last year he was given an award by the district for 10 accident-free years. And when Palacios rode to work on his motorcycle, he was always decked out in a helmet, boots and a jumpsuit with reflector stripes to protect himself against the perils of the road.

So it was with shock and grim irony that fellow bus drivers talked Thursday about their opinionated but well-loved colleague who was killed Wednesday when--helmetless, because it was a warm day--Palacios rode into the rear of a car that had slowed in front of him.

‘Everybody’s in Shock’

“I was stunned,” said Mike Rawlins, a driver out of OCTD’s Irvine division, where the 37-year-old Palacios was assigned. “Everybody’s just in shock here.”

“I’ve never seen him without a helmet,” said driver Diane Denisac. “I heard he just thought it was too beautiful a day to put one on.”

Placentia Police Sgt. Jay Fricke said a preliminary investigation indicates that the driver of the car in front of Palacios had slowed to make a left turn at the intersection of Rose Drive and Pine Street and was not at fault. It appears that Palacios did not realize that the driver was going to stop, “or he realized it too late,” he said. The motorcycle was traveling at an undetermined speed in the 50-m.p.h. zone, he said.

The 12:39 p.m. accident occurred about a mile from his home, where Palacios had just left his friend and fellow bus driver, Dave Newman, 30. The two had been working on Palacios’ motor home in preparation for a Palacios family trip to San Luis Obispo this weekend. Newman said he kept reminding Palacios that he had better not be late for work.

As Palacios climbed aboard his large motorcycle, “I asked him, ‘Why don’t you put on your helmet?’ ” Newman recalled. But, he said, Palacios drove off without it.

Learned His Friend Was Dead

A few minutes later, Newman happened upon the accident scene as he headed home to Anaheim, learned that his friend was hurt, and rushed to Placentia-Linda Community Hospital, where Palacios died. Sgt. Fricke said the helmet was found in the motorcycle saddlebag.

Newman said he later was told by police that Palacios sustained such severe injuries to his upper torso in the accident that “even with a helmet, he probably wouldn’t have had a chance.”

“He had always been a safe driver with good safety habits,” bus driver Carl Nielsen, a former motorcycle policeman, said of his friend. “But safe as we all are, sometimes our minds wander. He might have had something else on his mind.”

Newman recalled with irony that when he bought a motorcycle from Palacios more than a year ago, “the first thing he told me was, ‘Don’t go around the corner without a helmet.’ . . . He had a heart of gold. I’m going to miss him.”

Somber and Teary

At the OCTD Irvine division, colleagues were somber and teary. They recalled Palacios as a fun-loving, outspoken man who was quick to help the new drivers.

“He knew about everything,” said driver Doris Cota. “He was well-informed on almost everything. And he had a temper, too. When there was something he didn’t like, he let people have it . . . But we all loved him.”

Drivers at OCTD’s Anaheim division Thursday held a bake sale and donated proceeds, normally set aside for the group’s recreational fund, to Palacios’ family.

The German-born Palacios is survived by his wife, Sue, a fellow OCTD driver; his 12-year-old daughter; three step-children ranging in age from 17 to 2 years, and his father, Rudolph, and stepmother, Gloria, of Fullerton.

In the drivers’ room at the Irvine OCTD offices, colleague Tom Parry posted a poem he wrote in Palacios’ memory. It read, in part:

This Valentine’s Day

May be quiet and restrained,

A day touched with memories,

A day touched with pain.

A day rife with question,

Of hearts filled with grief

With feelings unspoken and numb disbelief.

For one of our number is missing today

We’ll not see him again

But he’s not gone away.

Who will forget Rudy?

That outspoken guy,

That hard-headed German

Who loved to let fly

With whatever happened

To enter his head

And hardly a thought

For whatever he said.

We loved him no matter.

We know who he was.

We accepted his moods

And his fussing because

He was Rudy.

Services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at McAulay & Wallace Funeral Home, 18371 Imperial Highway, Yorba Linda. Nielsen said a single OCTD bus will join the procession to the Loma Vista Memorial Park, 701 E. Bastanchury Road, Fullerton.