Police charge suspect in connection with Whistler cycling deaths

Charges have been laid in connection with the deaths of two cyclists near Pemberton, B.C. earlier this season, the CBC reported.

In late May, Ross Chafe and Kelly Blunden — broadly described as twin pillars in the local cycling community — were killed when a northbound driver crossed the center line of Duffy Lake Road, colliding with them head-on as they descended the steep grade. RCMP arrested the driver, Samuel Alec, in connection with the incident on Friday, after a lengthy and complicated investigation. With a passenger in the vehicle also killed during the late May collision, Alec received three counts each of criminal negligence causing death, impaired driving causing death, and driving under the influence, with a blood alcohol level in excess of 0.08. On top of that, the CBC reported, Alec has also been charged with failing to remain.

Both Blunden and Chafe were active members of the Whistler Cycling Club, which was out on a group ride at the time of the accident. Chafe, of course, was also well known Canada-wide as a member of the national team from 1979-80 and 1983-86, with events like the Commonwealth Games of 1986, the 1983 Pan Am Games, and numerous high-profile national races to his name.

Their deaths in May reverberated through the Canadian cycling scene.

Blunden and Chafe were described by those who knew them as exemplifying the best of Whistler sports. “To me,” Tim Regan, a mutual friend of both cyclists, told Whistler’s Pique News Magazine shortly after the tragedy, “both of these guys represented the best parts of Whistler and the best part of the brotherhood and sisterhood of athleticism here.”