The motorcyclist who died Monday after a rush hour crash close to State Faculty was a current Penn State alumnus and former member of the college’s prestigious Blue Band.
Josiah Mark Christophel, 22, of State Faculty, was remembered in his obituary as compassionate, humble and empathetic. He graduated earlier this 12 months with a bachelor’s diploma in cybersecurity analytics and operations.
Christophel was working his dream job on the time of his demise, a cyber data assurance analyst for the college’s Utilized Analysis Laboratory.
He was additionally remembered in his obituary as a gifted trumpeter who performed in Penn State’s Blue Band and carried out within the 2023 Rose Bowl parade. Christophel is survived by his dad and mom, a brother, two grandparents and others.
He died Monday after a 73-year-old native man driving a Toyota Prius turned from East Faculty Avenue and collided with him in the intersection with Struble Highway, State Faculty police wrote in a report launched Tuesday.
Christophel was ejected and flown by a medical helicopter to UPMC Altoona, the place he was pronounced lifeless. The driving force was handled on the scene in Faculty Township for minor accidents, police wrote.
Neither medicine nor alcohol are believed to be an element within the crash, police wrote. An investigation is ongoing.
Deadly bike crashes usually decreased in the course of the previous decade in Centre County, state Division of Transportation information confirmed. Fourteen such crashes have been reported from 2014-18, although solely three have been reported in the course of the subsequent five-year interval, 2019-23.
In the course of the twenty years coated by PennDOT information, just one different lethal bike crash was reported in Faculty Township. It was reported in 2012.
