Hit-and-Run an Ironic End to Cyclist’s Life : Fatality: An Anaheim man who warned his loved ones often about the importance of bike safety is killed. A suspect is held.

Hal Bivens was a retired engineer who was an avid cyclist and often lectured others about bike safety.

As he did most weekends, Bivens was pedaling to catch up with his biking group Sunday morning when he was fatally struck by a hit-and-run driver.

On Monday, a suspect was in custody on felony charges, and Bivens’ friends and family were grieving over the senselessness of the accident.

“He was always warning me about that street,” said Debbi Holsinger, 31, a close friend who often rode with Bivens.

Bivens, 59, of Anaheim was one of more than 50 bicyclists killed on Orange County roads since 1990, according to the California Highway Patrol. An additional 7,650 cyclists were injured by cars during the same period.

Bivens was hit in the 2900 block of North Glassell Street in Orange, about two blocks from a bridge where a jogger was struck and killed by a motorist in 1985. That earlier accident, friends said, had prompted Bivens to caution others about riding in the area where Glassell crosses the Santa Ana River.

“He said to be really careful when you go by the bridge,” Holsinger said. “He said, ‘Go in single file, look behind you and keep an eye on the cars.’ ”

Bivens was just past the bridge and headed south on Glassell about 8:30 a.m. Sunday when he was hit from behind by a pickup truck traveling in the same direction, Orange Police Lt. John Higley said.

Traffic investigators said the driver of the truck had fallen asleep behind the wheel and that Bivens was thrown about 50 feet into a parked truck. Though Bivens was wearing a helmet, he bled to death due to blunt force trauma to his head and torso, a spokesman for the coroner’s office said.

Police arrested Conrado Maldanado Deleon, 28, of Orange at his home on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and felony hit and run. In the suspect’s carport, police found a Toyota pickup truck matching witnesses’ description of the vehicle involved in the accident, investigators said.

“He never even stopped,” said Roy Griffith, an Orange police traffic investigator. “There is still a question about why he left the scene. He said he knew it was wrong.”

Deleon was being held Monday in Orange County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.

Griffith said the victim was wearing a helmet and obeying traffic regulations when the crash occurred.

“He was doing everything right,” Griffith said. “I don’t know what else he could have done. I am quite sure he never saw it coming.”

Those who knew Bivens were in shock.

“He would have lived to be 100,” said Jeanie Hebert, who worked with Bivens at Beckman Instruments in Fullerton until he retired in 1993. “This man was in incredible shape.”

Hebert said that since his retirement, Bivens often came by the office to help restore the company’s antique scientific instruments.

“He was the most wonderful, kind individual you’d meet,” she said. “We are all mourning his loss.”

Bivens, who grew up in Brea with three sisters, joined the Air Force after a semester of college. He worked for Beckman Instruments for 37 years.

“He had just retired and was having a good time,” said his father, Leo.

At his Anaheim home, Hal Bivens kept a rooster, several rabbits and an assortment of exotic birds in wooden cages he built by hand. Used motor oil containers were neatly gathered in shopping bags for disposal, and cat food lay out in a bowl beside Bivens’ gardening shoes.

“He was so alive,” Holsinger said. “He was into airplanes and trains and cycling.”

Holsinger said Bivens often competed in 100-mile races and regularly rode about 250 miles a week.

“He was a really good, kind man,” said Holsinger’s mother, Pamela, a former girlfriend of Bivens. “I just never expected this.”