Samuel “Sammy” O’Brien Jr. lost his life officially on Sunday March 2 around 10 a.m.
Two weeks later, after a candlelight vigil the night he passed and a “ride”, to celebrate his life and loss, the following afternoon, it’s safe to say hundreds turned out to say goodbye, one more time last Sunday afternoon at the Faust Funeral Home in Penndel Borough.
No matter the circumstance “Sammy” as friends and loved ones call him, touched so many lives and his tragic death multiplied those numbers easily.
Was he riding a dirt bike? Yes. Was he riding it without a helmet? Yes! So let’s get past those facts for a moment if you will. The community lost an 18-year-old man who in many ways was still a boy getting into mischief.
Credit: Submitted
Saturday, March 1, when he got on that dirt bike; it was his last mischievous act. It cost him his life bringing darkened days to his family and loved ones for an eternity to come, just like last Sunday.
O’Brien’s sister, Saundra Meyer, from the first tragic moments after reports of the accident came into Lower Bucks Source attempted to do two things: to beat back and/or correct misinformation about the brother she deeply adored and loved. Secondly, she quietly shared what she knew and did not know with the community and media, including this news organization.
No judgement here, the young man’s familial dynamics and connections are in a word complicated. That is not our focus here. That belongs to the family members.
Meyer and her younger sister, days after “Sammy” died, started to focus on what good, if any, could come from the loss of the brother on whom they doted.
For Meyer it was simple and straightforward with her younger sibling agreeing.
If you’re going to be out there riding, “put a effing helmet on …please!”
Both sisters confirmed their energetic and sometimes anti-authority brother had no helmet on, and if he did have one, maybe, just maybe, he would have had the opportunity, the chance, to recover from his injuries, like one motorcyclist who was involved in a nasty crash in Croydon last fall. Kyle Flook was wearing a helmet. His wife, at last check-in, said her husband is recovering, but respectfully declined a Lower Bucks Source follow-up story.
Late Friday night, two women, long time followers of this news organization, who have worked in emergency care at medical facilities in the region, responded the same way when asked, what was it like, for them, when a rider, showed up after a crash, who had no helmet on. They each said the same thing.
“Trumatic”
Each in their own right are seasoned professionals, seeing up close and personal what patients look like after crashes, not wearing a helmet.
They each said, you never forget the imagery, and worse, you think about the lost opportunity at life, because of severe head trauma.
Friend and freelance photographer for Lower Bucks Source, Joe Nelson of Bristol, looks forward to every warm or cold day he can ride his motorcycle. Nelson had a real close call, recently getting into an accident. He got scuffed up all right but he was wearing his helmet. The days of being “Joe Cool” motorcyclist riding with no helmet has given way to Nelson being a fiance, a dad, a man in recovery. He knows riding without a helmet is volunteering for tragedy. That’s not something on his agenda, and if it was, we would be reading how the love of his life, Maria Marshall, kicked his A** for doing so.
Nelson would say, “that checks out,” that’s why he doesn’t risk it.
The sisters want that chance, that opportunity, for any rider to survive crashes. It’s fairly simple, Meyer repeated, put an effing helmet on please!
As of last check. Tullytown Police say the investigation remains open and no determinations have made.
Plans are in the works to hold a ride commemorating O’Brien Jr’s death annually, the sisters said, with Nelson assisting.
Credit: Joe Nelson
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