Electric motorcycle designer dies in crash

<p>A local electric motorcycle entrepreneur died Monday in a vehicle collision at a major intersection near Coddingtown Mall.</p><p>Matthew Dieckmann, 29, of Santa Rosa was killed in the 10:40 a.m. crash, Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Doug Schlief said.</p><p>Gilbert Dorame, 71, of Santa Rosa was driving a silver Toyota Prius that collided with Dieckmann, Schlief said.</p><p>Witnesses reported that the light was green for both drivers as they approached the intersection from opposite directions, Schlief said.</p><p>Dieckmann was heading east on West Steele Lane as he approached Range Avenue, Schlief said. Dorame was heading west. He began making a left-hand turn into the intersection as he headed toward southbound Range Avenue.</p><p>Dieckmann crashed into the passenger side of the Prius, Schlief said. </p><p>He died at the scene.</p><p>Officers closed the intersection for about five hours.</p><p>Investigators were still determining who may have been at fault in the collision, Schlief said.</p><p>Dieckmann was riding an electric motorcycle that he was developing for his business, Electric Race Bikes, said his grandmother, Betty Hiebel, 79, of Santa Rosa.</p><p>The Piner High School graduate's business was an outgrowth for his love for racing, she said. He was bothered by the amount of pollution produced by the sport, so he began experimenting with electric bikes.</p><p>“He was re-inventing them to make them better,” Hiebel said.</p><p>One of Dieckmann's motorcycles, called the EGP, in May helped a professional rider win third place at TTXGP, a zero- carbon, clean-emission motorcycle race held at Infineon Raceway, according to the event's website.</p><p>Dieckmann was working on a project with a business in India to promote the motorcycles in the country, his grandmother said.</p><p>Dieckmann's business took him around the country, she said, keeping him so busy this summer that he had to stop teaching Aikido classes at the YMCA, one of his favorite activities.</p><p>He returned home last week in time to take his grandmother to church at Santa Rosa's Thanksgiving Lutheran, she said.</p><p>“He was the best kind of person you'd ever want,” Hiebel said.</p><p>Dieckmann was killed just over a mile from the street where his mother died in 2006 after she was struck while riding her bicycle.</p><p>A recycling truck driver turned into his mother, 47-year-old Kathy Hiebel, as she crossed Guerneville Road southbound from Marlow Road, police said.</p><p>“I can't believe it. I guess now I'm not believing it,” his grandmother said.</p>