EMMAUS, Pa. — The sun was dipping low in the sky when Sharon Hyndman last saw her son alive.
“I remember it exactly. We just got our vinyl fence installed that day, which I waited 20 some years to buy, and I finally got it, and Peyton was helping us put all the new furniture together outside,” Sharon recalled.
The spring air was crisp and inviting as temperatures dipped into the low 60s on the night of Tuesday, May 9, 2023.
From the yard, she later heard the familiar rumble of Peyton’s motorcycle echoing down the alley.
“He came down the alley, revved his bike, and screamed, ‘I love you,’ as he passed the gate,” Hyndman said. “That was the last time I saw him.”
A short time later, 22-year-old Peyton Hyndman was gone, killed in a crash in the 600 block of State Avenue less than a mile from their Emmaus home.
The spate of incidents continued through 2023 and the summer of 2024.
Now, it feels like not a week or two goes by without a fatal collision involving a motorcycle on Lehigh Valley roads — prompting Lehigh County Coroner Dan Buglio to speak out and attempt to get a handle on the scope of the tragedies and their cause.
"Speeding and careless driving are often contributing factors to these crashes," he said recently, begging motorists to drive safety and undistracted. "I am certain families would appreciate their loved ones returning home safely."
‘That need for speed, thrill’
From childhood, Peyton Hyndman seemed destined for two wheels.
“He was building ramps in our alley, jumping with his big wheel, then his dirt bikes and his Mongoose,” Sharon recalled.
“He was jumping off cliffs like he just had that need for speed, thrill, excitement and all that. And then when Peyton got old enough, he said he wanted a bike.”
At that moment, his mother set some firm boundaries.
“I said, ‘Here's the deal. I will not co-sign for it. I will have nothing to do with it. If you can do it, you can have a bike.’”
Not that Sharon would ever truly discourage what some might view as her only child’s capricious pursuits.
While she eyed his passion with wariness, she knew an adventurous spirit consumed the heart and soul of who Peyton was.
“I really didn't think it was going to happen because he had a car loan. So I'm like, there's no way he's gonna get this motorcycle loan. He did, and then he had that bike for like, two years.”
The family even took Peyton to Daytona Bike Week, where his passion grew stronger.
“We trailered the bikes down, and he bought this faster bike at Daytona Bike Week. So we trailered home a different bike. You know, that's the bike that he had the accident on."
Her voice softened.
“I wish this didn’t happen. I wish I wasn't this mom, you know what I mean?”
‘The sky was perfectly blue’
Elaine Ocasio is also that mom. She lost her son, Luis Rivera Ocasio, to a motorcycle crash on Thanksgiving Day 2023, seven months after Peyton’s death.
Luis, 20, was killed when his motorcycle collided with a pickup truck at East Emmaus and Gaskill avenues in Salisbury Township.
It was another day where “the sky was perfectly blue and the sun was beautiful and bright,” Elaine Ocasio said.
The kind of day where riders wouldn’t think twice about hitting the road.
According to the National Safety Council, 94% of all fatal motorcycle crashes in 2023 happened in good weather.
Nearly 57% of those incidents also involved multiple vehicles, and — just like Luis and Peyton — most riders were helmeted.
Elaine Ocasio knew how conscientious Luis was about riding.
“Whenever he left the house, he made sure to have all his safety gear, helmet, gloves and boots,” she recalled.
But he also had concerns about roadways and drivers that began to feel more and more treacherous.
“He always told us about situations that happened and experiences he had on the street with people who were not aware or cautious about motorcyclists,” she said.
“He would get angry when people did not follow the rules, such as at stop signs, traffic lights, signs, among others. And if he had to tell someone to drive carefully, he would.”
“He would get angry when people did not follow the rules, such as at stop signs, traffic lights, signs, among others. And if he had to tell someone to drive carefully, he would.”Elaine Ocasio talking about her son Luis
‘The worst news of our lives’
Late Thanksgiving morning, Luis set out for what was meant to be his final ride of the season from the family's home in Bethlehem.
“He decided to go to my sister’s house [in Allentown] to put his motorcycle in storage for the winter because we didn’t have a garage at our home,” Elaine said.
The plan was for his father to follow later and bring him home for dinner.
Luis left first. His father went another route.
“When my husband arrived at my sister's house, he noticed that Luis hadn't arrived.”
Both parents rushed to his last known location.
“I started driving, and when I was going through Fountain Hill, the ambulance that Luis was in passed me by, but since it didn't have its emergency sirens on, I didn't think anything of it,” Elaine said.
At the scene, police directed them to St. Luke’s Hospital.
“In the emergency area, there was a hustle and bustle, everyone going side to side, many nurses, doctors, and paramedics, and we, desperate and scared, asked for Luis and notified them that we were his parents.
“A doctor came out and took us to a room to give us the worst news of our lives. Our son had passed away.”
‘I don’t want anyone else to get that call’
Peyton and Luis were not just enthusiasts of their hobby, their mothers said. Like all riders, they also were aware of the hazards, including an inherent physical vulnerability and a lack of protective features in motorcycles.
The grieving mothers they left behind have been galvanized by the loss of their children to speak up and to promote understanding of motorcycles on the roads and for everyone to be more vigilant.
“People need to raise awareness and understand that every mode of transport must be handled with caution,” Elaine Ocasio said.
“They should know that a car does not stop or brake the same way a motorcycle does, and they should give space.
For a motorcycle driver, it is a risk/danger to go at a speed where they cannot brake adequately or do not have enough space [or] distance due to a car driver who could not [or] did not respect their space.”
Sharon Hyndman shares that sentiment, and turned the pain of losing her son into a simple but urgent message: “Look Twice, Save a Life.”
She acknowledged Peyton “was going faster than he should’ve been … I’m not the mom to say he wasn’t. He was. They didn’t even have to tell me that. I knew he was.
“But Peyton had no drugs or alcohol in his system, he was totally clean. And the guy in the car, nothing, and he wasn't on his cell phone. It was just an accident.”
She says what matters most is making people aware, and for drivers to look twice. Just take that extra second. Because each time another crash is reported, she thinks of a new family suddenly waiting for that call.
“Every time I hear about another crash, I think of the mother,” she said. “I don’t want anyone else to get that call.”
“Every time I hear about another crash, I think of the mother. I don’t want anyone else to get that call.”Sharon Hyndman
‘I need someone to stay alive because I lost Peyton’
Sharon Hyndman can’t bring herself to go back to the site where her only child died.
“I’ll go 20 miles out of my way if I have to,” she said.
But in the days after the crash, groups of friends assembled near the spot and returned thereafter — to cry together, tell stories and to simply be together.
They also constructed a memorial that now includes reminders to look twice and save a life.
“The people that I met at the funeral, there had to be over 1,200 people,” his mom said.
“And even now, like, I'll have my shirt on, and they're like, ‘How do you know Peyton? And I'm like, you know, I’m his mom. And then we start talking and stuff, but it's amazing. He just gave his heart to everybody.”
The shirt to which she referred has the initials LLP, or Long Live Peyton. Next month, the second annual LLP Peyton Hyndman Memorial Cornhole Tournament will be held at the Weyerbacher taproom and Triple Sun Spirits in Emmaus.
Money raised from the event will be donated to Logan’s Heroes Animal Rescue in Peyton’s memory.
But more than a fundraiser, Sharon Hyndman hopes Peyton’s story will be a reminder to everyone on the roads — regardless of how they feel about motorcycles — that kids like Peyton and Luis are “somebody's son, or brother, or uncle or father.”
“What I think a lot of his friends have learned is how it affects me and what I’m going through. Like, you don't want your parents to go through this, you know what I mean?
“I think they see, but they also … don't go home. I think I have 1,000 kids now because they go on vacation with us. They're at our house. We meet them at Yergey’s and Weyerbacher.
“Christmas [and] Mother's Day are insane at my house. They are the most amazing group of children I have ever met. Well, they're not children, they're men and women. I mean, the people I've met through Peyton … it just blows my mind and this is sometimes how I have to look at it.
“My loss, it might have saved somebody else. And if that's what this can do … I need someone to stay alive because I lost Peyton.”
‘Live once, ride forever’
It’s that loss of her son that has left Elaine Ocasio with pain that words can hardly describe.
“The loss of a loved one is painful, whether it’s a father, mother, brother, etc., but the loss of a child is a pain and a wound that will never heal,” she said.
“A piece of you, of your heart, is gone. It feels like being in a tunnel without an exit.”
Elaine shared that her faith since Luis’ death has been her greatest source of strength.
“A piece of you, of your heart, is gone. It feels like being in a tunnel without an exit.”Elaine Ocasio
“Honestly, there are no words that can heal the heart of a person who has gone through the loss of a loved one, especially a mother who has lost a piece of her heart,” she said.
The family honors Luis’s memory through traditions that bring loved ones together.
Luis was the eldest of three siblings and "a young man full of life, joy, and many beautiful qualities. [He] was very loved, not only by his family but by all those who knew him and had their hearts touched by him," his mother said.
“Every month, I pray the holy rosary and ask God to allow him to rest in peace. I put fresh flowers and maintain his altar with photos and his ashes.
“It is also decorated according to what he means to me, an angel who won heaven,” Elaine explained.
“On the anniversary of his passing, we invited friends and family to come to my home to light a candle in memory of Luis.
“For Luis's 21st birthday on Oct. 27 we put up balloons, flowers, and sang happy birthday next to his ashes.”
She hopes to keep this tradition alive for years to come, ensuring everyone remembers the words Luis used to say: “Live Once, Ride Forever.”
The Lehigh County Coroner’s Office has handled nine motorcycle fatalities so far this year after 12 such fatalities in 2024. There were seven fatalities in 2023, Coroner Dan Buglio said.
In Northampton County, Coroner Zachary Lysek’s office had five fatalities by Aug. 12 (including three in July). That’s more than double the previous two years combined. Both 2024 and 2023 saw two fatalities each, said Jessica Berger, the county’s public information officer.
In Pennsylvania, there were 3,292 motorcycle crashes reported in 2024, resulting in 219 deaths, according to the state Department of Transportation.
From Jan. 1 to June 30 of this year, Pennsylvania State Police incident data showed 544 motorcycle crashes statewide, resulting in 435 injuries and at least 39 fatalities.
