Carlsbad police are looking for more witnesses to a terrible collision that killed a 35-year-old mother who was riding her e-bike when she was hit by a car. Her 16-month-old riding on the back of the bike was not injured.
Christine Hawk Embree loved to go on outdoor adventures with her husband and their daughter. “Anything outdoors, they were always walking on the coast, travelling, hiking, pretty much anything,” said Hawk Embree’s stepsister, Kelly Carrasco.
Hawk Embree was also part of a “huge network” of business people in the community, at one time working for a sunglass company and later for yoga apparel.
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“A very beautiful person, very happy person really,” said friend and one time co-worker Charlie Ninegar.
“People say these nice things about people when they're not around, but with Christine it was so true. Just a good-natured spirit, hard worker, kind of a cornerstone in a lot of businesses she was involved with in different ways,” he added.
Carlsbad police said around 5:45 p.m. on Sunday, a driver of a Toyota 4-Runner hit them at the intersection of Basswood Avenue at Valley Street. Hawk Embree was taken to the hospital where she later died. Her daughter was not injured.
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“Absolute miracle,” said Ninegar.
“I don’t know details of what happened for it to be such a frankly, brutal moment for Christine and for her daughter to survive relatively unscathed is one little, more than a little, silver lining in this for sure,” he added.
The 42-year-old driver stopped at the scene, for which Carrasco is thankful. Police are investigating and said drugs and alcohol did not appear to be a factor. Like police, Carrasco is hoping anyone who witnessed the collision will reach out with information. “I just don’t understand what happened. I have so many questions. I’m hoping we can get some answers,” she said.
She and Ninegar do not know if distracted driving was to blame, but said that in any case, this should be a reminder to all.
“Slow down, don’t look at your phone, pay attention to what you’re doing. It's such a loss,” she said.
“If there's any good to come of this, I hope we all take a note to put the phone down when we drive because in an instant, you don’t want to be the person getting hit, or the person doing the hitting," Ninegar said.
Friends are raising donations online for the victim’s husband and daughter.
