Ventura Nurse Dies After Being Struck by Motorcycle

A Ventura nurse and foster mother struck by a motorcyclist while crossing a street on her way to work has died, authorities said Wednesday.

Although police initially believed her injuries in the Tuesday accident were minor, Cindy Marie Rohrback, 42, suffered massive internal and head injuries that were discovered during surgery at Ventura County Medical Center in Ventura.

“She was a wonderful, amazing woman,” said her sister, Cathy Bozek, a Ventura attorney.

Rohrback was walking back to Buenaventura Medical Clinic on Brent Street, where she had worked for a month, about noon Tuesday when she was hit by a motorcyclist while trying to cross Main Street.

“I ride motorcycles and have seen some bad crashes,” said Don Woolard, a Ventura resident who witnessed the crash, “and this one was pretty bad.”

The impact threw Rohrback several feet in the air, and the rider of the Harley-Davidson was thrown from his seat, Ventura Police Sgt. John Turner said.

The motorcyclist, Dustin Peck, 30, of Ventura, was treated for a concussion and cuts and scrapes at a local hospital and released. He has not been cited, but police were investigating whether speed was a factor.

Woolard said he was sitting in his truck at a red light on Main when he saw the motorcyclist pass a large delivery truck on the right and then accelerate.

“He went around a big FedEx delivery truck and then just took off,” Woolard said. “Next thing I saw was his bike flying in the air.”

Rohrback was pronounced dead shortly before 7 p.m. Tuesday, said Armando Chavez, a senior deputy county coroner.

In addition to her new job, Rohrback also had worked as a nurse since 1999 at Hitchcock Urgent Care Center in Santa Barbara, a facility of Sansum-Santa Barbara Medical Foundation Clinic.

“The staff is devastated,” said Paul Jaconette, Sansum’s chief administrative officer. “Cindy was well-loved by her co-workers.”

Rohrback, an Oxnard native, spent more than five years in night school before graduating from the Ventura College nursing program, said her sister. In addition to raising two sons, Rohrback served as a foster parent, her family said.

“She worked very hard,” Bozek said, “and was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

A service has been scheduled for Saturday at Avenue Community Church on Ventura Avenue. The time is pending. Charles Carroll Funeral Home in Ventura was handling the arrangements.