Family Makes Plea For Info In Cyclist's Fatal Hit-And-Run

Friends and family of Dale Pechina, the bicyclist killed by a hit-and-run driver early Saturday morning, gathered at the site of the accident yesterday afternoon to remember his life and make an emotional plea for anyone with information about the accident to come forward.

"Dale was 6-6 and 220 pounds," said his mother, Sue Pechina. "I don't know how someone could just drive away and not know that they had hit someone."

Martin Dale Pechina Jr., 32, of Seattle died of injuries at 10:10 a.m. Saturday at Harborview Medical Center, nine hours after the accident outside Latitude 47 restaurant on Westlake Avenue North. Customers reported hearing a noise and came outside to find Pechina lying in the driveway.

Pechina had been training for the upcoming Seattle-to-Portland bicycle race.

Seattle Police Detective Heather Warncke said Pechina was hit from behind at the 1200 block of Westlake Avenue North.

She said the vehicle involved would have extensive windshield damage and encouraged the driver or anyone with information about the accident to call.

"Someone out there knows something about it," she said.

At the gathering outside the restaurant, friends and family recalled Pechina's sense of humor and love of travel.

"He could always make you laugh," said a friend, Heidi Haydon.

"He was a great, great son," Martin Pechina Sr. said. "I just don't understand how any person could hit somebody and not stop and lend some assistance."

Dale Pechina worked for Best Consulting as a computer-network analyst and lived on Queen Anne. He moved here from Utah four years ago.

He was a big Chicago Cubs baseball fan who occasionally would fly to Chicago for games, his mother said.

Last year his retired parents moved to Sequim, on the Olympic Peninsula, to be closer to him, she said. The Pechinas have one other child, Michael, who lives in Atlanta.

A funeral will be held at 3 p.m. tomorrow at The Sequim Valley Chapel.

Anyone with information about the accident is asked to call Warncke at 206-684-8934.