Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008

Traffic accident claims life of Valley Falls senior

by Clarke Davis

A single-vehicle accident on K-92 highway Saturday night proved fatal for a Valley Falls High School senior.

Cameron Bickford, 18, was a passenger in a pickup truck driven by Jacob Kearney, 19, Valley Falls, that left the roadway and hit a utility pole.

Bickford was pronounced dead at a Topeka hospital after being transported by county ambulance.

Kearney was injured and received hospital treatment as did a second passenger, 15-year-old Hannah Navinskey, Valley Falls.

The accident occurred at approximately 9 p.m. two miles west of Ozawkie.

There was no explanation for why the pickup left the roadway, according the Highway Patrol report.

The 1994 Toyota was eastbound when it left the roadway, rolled, and struck a utility pole. It came to rest on its tires heading southwest.

“It’s quiet in this school today. It’s hard to tell there are kids in the building,” high school Principal Jack Molleker said Monday.

The school brought four counselors in to join the two on staff, the principal said. They were made available to individual students, groups of students, or entire classes.

Meetings were held with each class and efforts were made to stop rumors.

“Kids were allowed to express themselves and start the grief process,” he said. “This had a big effect on the students and it’s tough on the teachers, too. Some have known Cameron and his family for a long time.”

The principal described the youth as a good athlete, playing post on the basketball team and someone who was called on when a big, strong fellow was needed. A punter for the football team, he averaged over 40 yards on a kick.

Basketball fans were asked to wear armbands with No. 13 to Tuesday night’s games.

“He was a quiet young man, very mature. Everyone liked him and looked up to him,” Molleker said.

Cameron was the youngest of three sons born to Tim and Vivian Bickford. They lost their oldest son, Brandon, in April 2001 when he was a senior after a long battle with Ewing‘s sarcoma, a type of cancer.