Teacher Dies After Cycle Runs Into Car

A preschool teacher who was to be married next month died early Wednesday and her friend was critically injured when the motorcycle they were riding crashed into the car of another friend they had been following, police said.

Staycee G. Stone, 25, of Irvine, a teacher at South Coast Community Church, was killed, and Paul R. Garhartt was being treated for a collapsed lung, trauma to the heart, ruptured spleen and a broken leg, Lt. Tim Newman said.

Their friend driving the car, Bryan C. Vandiler, was held on suspicion of felony drunk driving, and bail was set at $10,000. Vandiler was not injured.

The three, who had been drinking at a Costa Mesa pub, were speeding west on Balboa Boulevard up to 80 m.p.h. about 1:25 a.m. when the car slowed as the road forked at Newport Boulevard, investigators said.

The motorcycle rear-ended the car, both vehicles jumped the curb, and the car skidded along Newport Boulevard. The motorcycle struck several street signs and a telephone pole in the center divider. Both riders were wearing helmets, Newman said.

Stone was taken to Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, where she died at 2:15 a.m. of multiple internal injuries, Newman said.

Stone’s best friend, Marlena Jacques, 23, said that Stone met the men through friends a year ago. Both men are 21, from out of state.

Stone’s fiancee, Greg Colbert, a sixth-grade teacher at Brywood Elementary School and a coach at Woodbridge High School, was on his way back to Irvine on Wednesday from Lake Tahoe, where he had been at a coaching camp, neighbors and colleagues said. The couple had started dating in December.

Stone, the eldest of her siblings, had been living at home with her parents, sister and brother, neighbor Amy Brown said.

“She was an angel. People loved her. She loved to be with children. We’re all kind of in shock,” Brown said.

Jacques, a fellow teacher who met Stone two years ago at the child-care center and who was to be a bridesmaid in the Aug. 22 wedding, said Stone “was great with the kids. She had lots of friends. She liked being with her friends.”

Stone was to start teaching kindergarten in the fall, said Veronica Kapp, director of the South Coast Early Childhood Center.