Pederson Road site of fatal crash
By Nancy Needham nancy@theacorn.com

Tim Whinery, 41, was pronounced dead at the scene at 10:49 p.m. Sunday after the 1998 BMW 740I he was driving crashed into a pine tree in the center divider on Pederson Road at Calle Almendro.

The vehicle was traveling in excess of 80 mph when Whinery lost control and the car slid onto the median, according to Sgt. Tom Bennett of the Thousand Oaks Police Department.

The passenger side of the vehicle hit first, and the impact caused the BMW to wrap around the tree. The accident occurred at about 10:45 p.m., Bennett said.

Area resident Karen Biehl recalled what she saw about 15 minutes earlier.

"My boyfriend was walking me home from work at about 10:30, and we saw the silver BMW racing up and down Pederson at about 100 miles an hour. After it went racing past us about six or eight times I said, 'He's going to crash.'"

After he dropped her off, Biehl's boyfriend, Glenn Batt, called and told her she was right. He saw the car had crashed into a tree, but neither of them realized the driver had died, she said.

"I think he was just driving around and around on Pederson going really fast from Erbes Road to Radcliff," Biehl said.

Elizabeth Marcoulier, 26, was inside her parents' house on Uppingham Drive. Some friends had just left, and she was about to go home. She and her father, Mitchell, heard the sound of car tires squealing down Pederson Road, not an unusual sound, according to the elder Marcoulier.

"We call Pederson Road the 'Thousand Oaks speedway,'" he said.

Father and daughter then heard the sound of a crash, and Elizabeth went running out into the night to see what had happened.

On a Sunday night two weeks before, they'd heard another crash on Pederson, and Elizabeth had run out and talked an allegedly intoxicated Corvette driver into not leaving the scene after he'd crashed on the median, she said.

This time the driver wasn't as fortunate and hit a tree.

"We looked into the car from the back windshield that was shattered, and we saw the driver lying in the driver's side of the back seat. He did not respond to us," Elizabeth said.

Her mother, Julie, called 911 after being awakened by what she described as the most earthshattering loud crash she'd ever heard.

Neighbors and emergency personnel rushed to the scene. Authorities asked people to stop taking photos of the crash, Julie Marcoulier said.

Pederson Road was closed for about five hours for investigators to examine the scene and for debris removal. The next morning, glass still covered the pavement, and a deeply damaged pine tree showed where Whinery, an operations manager of Smith Barney in Woodland Hills, had lost his life. It was not known if alcohol or drugs were a factor in the crash. The investigation is continuing.

Less than a mile away, Whinery's home looked peaceful, the yard covered in Christmas decorations. His brotherinlaw William Krall of Granada Hills was outside working.

Krall said Whinery is survived by his wife, Celina, and two sons, Dillon, 13, and Spencer, 8.

"He was going to take his family to Mammoth snowboarding after Christmas. They also liked to go camping at Pismo Beach. He enjoyed watching his boys race their motorcycles. He had a dune buggy he liked to take out," Krall said.

"He always loved me. I wish he didn't die. I wish I could hug him," Spencer said.