Former broadcast equipment sales rep Steve Claterbaugh, his girlfriend Kathleen Smith and two others are dead after a motorcycle accident over the weekend.
Dallas-area papers are reporting that the four were killed when a car hit their motorcycles on Highway 19 about a mile from Canton, Texas.
Jose Luis Pena, 31, of the Houston area is being held in lieu of $2 million bail in the Van Zandt County Jail, authorities there told the Dallas Morning News. Pena is charged with four counts of criminally negligent homicide after he swerved his sports car into oncoming traffic, the paper reported.
There are no indications of alcohol or drug use, police told the paper; they also said that because Pena’s car burst into flames upon impact, they have not been able to determine if the car had a mechanical problem.
The 53-year-old Claterbaugh most recently was self-employed and working as a consultant since 2008, specializing in international sales/marketing, market research and business development for international companies. Prior to that he was a sales manager in the Dallas area for Comet North America for its broadcast and industrial applications and had previous stints at Crown Broadcast and Continental Electronics, according to his LinkedIn profile and past Radio World coverage. He was also a licensed real estate agent.
Claterbaugh was a graduate of Bryan Adams High School in Dallas, WFAA(TV) reported on its website. Friend Ronnie Gordon told the television station Claterbaugh “was always there when I needed him. He would do anything for anybody.”
