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Carl Wilson offered his bike-riding co-worker a lift. As they put the bike in the trunk, a truck slams into them.
By MELIA BOWIE
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 3, 2001
Every morning Kenneth Scott Keeton, would leave his Skyview Point apartment -- the one with all the plants on the balcony -- get on his bike and ride to his job as a landscaper at Isla Del Sol golf course.
He loved his new job and the people there, said his father. So when co-worker Carl Wilson passed him on the road and offered him a ride to work Friday morning, he accepted.
Wilson pulled over to the curbside lane of 54th Avenue S near 41st Street and the two men loaded his bike into the trunk of Wilson's maroon 1986 Ford LTD.
But about 6:20 a.m., as they were standing at the trunk to load the bicycle, an orange 1985 Dodge pickup exiting the flyover south off Interstate 275 failed to see the two men and hit them -- pinning Wilson and Keeton between the work truck and the car, police said.
Wilson, 45, of 1326 13th Ave. S in St. Petersburg died at the scene. He left behind three children, ages 26, 13, and 10, said his sister, Floria Sutton. Keeton, also 45, died on the way to Bayfront Medical Center.
The truck's driver, 44-year-old Douglas W. Picard of Spring Hill, did not complain of injuries but went to Bayfront Medical Center to be checked out, said St. Petersburg police spokesman George Kajtsa.
Police said the accident happened just before dawn. Tests showed Picard had no alcohol in his system, Kajtsa said.
"He attempted to stop but unfortunately did not stop in time," Kajtsa said, noting the long skid marks leading up to the crash site.
No charges were filed Friday. An investigation into the accident is ongoing, Kajtsa said.
Keeton, an avid sports fan and commercial fisherman who often headed to Boca Ciega Bay with his rod and reel, was the middle child of Cecilia and Kenneth E. Keeton. The elder Keeton is a retired professor at Eckerd College.
A former paratrooper who was guided into the service by his father as a teenager, the younger Keeton later continued his education and trained at Pinellas Technical Institute as a landscaper, his chosen field for the last 10 years.
He had worked at Isla Del Sol for about three and a half months, said a supervisor who described him as quiet, dedicated and "funny when you got him going."
"He was good with chemicals and knew a lot about plants," said golf course superintendent Robert Solo.
Wilson, who co-workers described as boisterous, started his job at the country club a year ago and quickly worked his way up to equipment operator.
"Carl, he was very helpful and happy," Solo said. "He helped one of the members out here on the golf course during a thunderstorm. She had a pacemaker and he sat with her under the bridge until it was over and then helped her get home."
Both men will be missed, said Solo who learned about the accident as he was driving past it on his way to work. "They were friends; everybody on the crew got to be friends."
A steady stream of family and friends came through Wilson's home Friday, said Sutton, who noted her brother was the fourth of five children.
A Dallas Cowboys fan who loved shooting pool and pulling pranks, "he was just a fun-loving person," she said. "He loved to joke. Last night we went to visit my mother in the hospital and when we got home we just talked and laughed and reminisced all night."
At Isla Del Sol, the two men's co-workers were unable to do much work as they remembered their friends, Solo said Friday. "It's been a sad day."