Updated: August 26, 2023

32 year-old David Koleski father of three beautiful girls and husband to wife Nicole died in a tragic motorcycle accident on a Saturday August 12.

He was laid to rest after services at Wade Funeral Home Wednesday night.  

A Go Fund Me started in Kolesk’s memory and to support his three daughters has received just under $5400.00 from 73 donors with a goal of $10,000

On Monday night friends and family gathered at the accident site holding a candlelight vigil remembering the young father of three. The gathering of about two dozen was private and intimate, one onlooker said.

His brother, Michael posted images of the solemn gathering thanking those that came,

“Thank you to all that came for My brother’s candle lighting. I appreciate everyone so much. Be careful out there while you’re driving,” he said.

Koleski as you may already know, wasn’t struck by another vehicle. He wasn’t shot. Or like last year, a bird didn’t  accidentally strike him  while he was motoring down Bristol Pike, south of Mill Creek Road.

Koleski, according to police and confirmed by the Bucks County Coroner’s,  office died apparently because of potholes and defects on Bristol Pike, a state owned road. The question of how fast  Koleski was traveling, and where the road defects actually are, and what happened after he left his seat on his motorcycle remain open since neither the police or the coroners office provided those details.

Lower Bucks Source did, through backchannels, ask investigators for help in determining those factors but no response came.

What is  known is the young father lost control of his motorcycle after hitting a series of potholes, which resulted in him sustaining multiple fatal injuries.

The intense reaction of commenters and concerned citizens with regards to the potholes being the inciting cause of the one vehicle accident sparked further outrage that continued in recent days on the Lower Bucks Source Facebook page.

On the Tuesday after his death, Joe Nelson, a motorcyclist himself, and father of four, rode out to the crash site to take some pictures. Nelson while there, ran into Koleski’s widow, Nicole.

Widow, doesn’t roll off the tongue or typing fingers easily anywhere in the universe we cohabitate when describing a young mother of three. They talked, Nelson said but much  exchange was private.

She was trying to make sense out of how her whole world changed in the blink of an eye she said later.

Nelson took dozens of pictures. Sending them over as fast as he took them showing a seriously scarred roadway. The images also revealed recent patch work in some areas of the crash site.

PennDOT confirmed road repairs and work done the Monday after reading media accounts of the accident said PennDOT Spokesperson Robyn Briggs.

“PennDOT Bucks County Maintenance dispatched a crew on Monday, August 14, to investigate the area. Our team also reached out to the Falls Township Police Department to confirm that the incident occurred on Old Bristol Pike south of the Mill Creek Road Intersection. On Monday, August 14, the crew filled two small potholes on Old Bristol Pike for proactive safety precautions. One was located north of the Mill Creek Road Intersection and the other was located south of the intersection,”

Briggs added there are no active or current concerns submitted for that segment of Old Bristol Pike from the PennDOT Customer Care Center. \

The response did nothing for Kolesk’s grieving wife. After reading the statement to her. she simply had  no reaction which makes sense when you read published reports on trauma response She did note, her mixed feelings about her husband’s motorcycle riding and that she herself doesn’t ride.

“It’s just not safe I think, ” she said ,”but Dave loved to ride.”

And still yet Bristol Pike south of the Mill Creek Road Intersection remains a “mess” one observer said after the patch work was done. last week.

In an informal survey I asked seven local motorcyclists would they ride that section of Bristol Pike in the future. To a person they said it wasn’t very likely they would.

“Even after the patch work, it’s still a mess” one rider said.

Briggs did say three concerns were submitted earlier this year with work crews responding and competing work in April.

The area of concern, she said, was “Old Bristol Pike and  Mill Creek Road” and U.S. 13 .