19-year-old in crash liked to race cars

<p>Friends and relatives of the Maloney family Monday tried to make sense of the weekend crash that killed the parents and two young children when a driver of a sports car reportedly blew through a red light so fast the impact crushed the Sonoma family's minivan and fatally injured him.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>The grieving came as more information about the 19-year-old Mini Cooper driver became known.</p><p>Steven Culbertson of Lakeport liked to race cars as a hobby, a family friend said. On his Facebook page, he described himself as a "pro driver/mechanic," and several photos show him in a car on a racetrack.</p><p>CHP investigators were looking into why Culbertson reportedly speeded through the red light at Lakeville Highway and Highway 37 just before 10 p.m. Saturday. Culbertson's car broadsided the Maloney van.</p><p>John Maloney, 45; his wife, Susan, 42; and their children, Grace, 5, and Aiden, 8, died from the impact.</p><p>Culbertson died Sunday morning, the CHP said.</p><p>The 19-year-old shared a passion for racing cars with his father, said Gino Ferrario. Ferrario has worked for Culbertson's father, also named Steven Culbertson, for more than 10 years at Steve's Aircraft, an aviation maintenance company in Lakeport.</p><p>"They would go down and race in Bakersfield, father-son kind of stuff," Ferrario said.</p><p>The pair worked on small BMW and Acura race cars together and would travel to race at the Bakersfield track and others, including the Thunderhill Raceway Park near Willows in Glenn County.</p><p>"It's really tragic. We're just trying to hold it together here," Ferrario said.</p><p>The CHP said witnesses reported Culbertson was driving 70 to 90 mph south on Lakeville Highway when he clipped one car, then smashed into the Maloneys' van as it was passing eastbound on Highway 37 through the intersection.</p><p>The Maloneys were headed home after arriving on a flight from Maui, where they had spent Thanksgiving.</p><p>Investigators Monday were looking into Culbertson's background.</p><p>"We'll contact family and friends and find out where he was coming from and where he was going, what he was doing leading up to the collision," CHP Officer Jon Sloat said.</p><p>Culbertson's father on Monday was too distraught to speak with officers, Sloat said. Officers are expecting to speak with him later this week.</p><p>Attempts by The Press Democrat to reach Culbertson's family in Lake County were unsuccessful Sunday and Monday.</p><p>Culbertson graduated from an alternative Lakeport high school in 2008, Natural High School, a Lakeport school district official said. Ferrario said Culbertson was taking computer classes at Santa Rosa Junior College's Petaluma campus this semester.</p><p>In Sonoma, the Maloneys' relatives were gathering from the East Coast and other areas. Services are pending, said longtime family friend Bob Smith.</p><p>John Maloney's 19-year-old daughter, Molly, from a previous marriage had come home from college to visit her father after his return from Hawaii. She was grieving with her mother in Marin County, family friends said.</p><p>Meanwhile, school officials brought therapy dogs and counselors to Prestwood School to help students, staff and parents deal with the loss of the Maloney children, who were students there.</p><p>"We're all pretty distraught about what has happened," interim Principal Linda Tiefenthal said. "But this is a warm and caring community, the Prestwood community."</p><p>Aiden, a second-grader, had attended the Sonoma school of 475 students for three years. Grace started kindergarten in the fall.</p><p>Crisis counselors were on campus Monday morning, as were therapy dogs Isaiah and Farley, who visited the Maloney children's classrooms.</p><p>Also, representatives from the nonprofit WillMar Center for Bereaved Children spoke with parents Monday and were set to be at an already-planned meeting tonight at the school.</p><p>"People are stunned and very, very sad," Tiefenthal said. "But there is something about a school, maybe it's the structure. . . . It feels like a safe place. Things are moving along. We're doing the best we can and being as good to each other as we can be."</p><p>John Maloney was a sales and marketing executive, and Susan Maloney worked in human resources. They met at Panamax, a Petaluma-based designer and manufacturer of electronic and electrical protection, filtration and control products, where he became a co-owner. Panamax was later sold to Petaluma-based Nortek.</p><p>After taking time off to pursue a master's degree at Dominican University in San Rafael and write a children's book, John Maloney went back to work earlier this year at SolarCraft, a solar energy services company with offices in Marin and Sonoma counties.</p><p>"Part of his legacy is that he helped us put a great team and system in place here," company President Bill Stewart said in a statement to employees. "He will continue to inspire us as we move forward, and we will never forget him."</p><p>"He was thoughtful to people he really didn't have to be nice to, which to me is the mark of a person's character," said Ben Delaney of Oakland, a friend of John Maloney's since the 1980s.</p><p>"Susan was quiet but strong. She was a physically small person, only about 5-2, but she had a strong personality, a great sense of humor and was also very smart and effective at work, a great mother."</p><p>Susan Maloney, like her husband, had taken some time off and was considering "the next phase of her life" as a pilates instructor, said neighbor and friend Chris Rowland.</p><p>"Everyone was gathering in tears and emotion and sadness and anger and disbelief -- all of the emotions you could possibly have," Rowland said of the Maloneys' Fryer Creek Road neighbors.</p><p>"I have this hole in my heart. It's going to be there for a while."</p><p>You can reach Staff Writers Lori A. Carter at 762-7297 or e-mail at lori.carter@</p><p>pressdemocrat.com, Randi Rossmann at 521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com and Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com.</p>