Couple killed in US 27 motorcycle crash ‘lived for each other’

Sep. 24--A Weston couple killed in a motorcycle crash after a tire blew out on U.S. 27, "just completed each other," said a friend who had been at dinner with them the night they died.

Harley-Davidson enthusiast Stephen Gardella, 55, and his passenger, Diana Mowatt, 57, had been a couple for over 10 years, said Erin Batista, Mowatt's best friend.

"These two actually lived for each other," she said. "The love between them was just very intense, very strong, and very beautiful."

Batista and her husband went with the couple to El Novillo restaurant for a "dinner and date night."

"It was a beautiful night. It was gorgeous outside," she said. "It was the first time we didn't have a lot of humidity and a little bit of breeze which is perfect bike-ride weather."

According to the Florida Highway Patrol crash report, Mowatt was a passenger on Gardella's motorcycle when it blew a tire about 9:45 p.m. Saturday.

Gardella lost control and both were thrown from the 2009 motorcycle into the northbound lanes of U.S. 27, just north of Interstate 75. They were struck by at least three vehicles, said Lt. Yanko Reyes.

"They were the most exceptional and exemplary people I have ever known," said Chris Naulty, 28, of Melbourne, Mowatt's nephew.

Like Batista, Naulty said his aunt and Gardella were big fans of riding that motorcycle.

"It was something that they just loved to do, hop on and have a great time," he said.

Bill Payne who lives in California and identified himself as Mowatt's cousin posted about the crash on Facebook calling it "Very sad news" and was getting scores of comments from people who knew the couple.

Mowatt lived in the Bermuda Springs community in Weston since the mid-1990s and was an Allstate insurance agent for over 25 years, Batista said.

"Everybody, they just loved her," she said. "Everybody just felt at ease with her no matter where they were. She just had that kind of personality."

Gardella was a JetBlue pilot and an avid hockey player who loved the Bruins from his native Boston.

"He won tickets to the Bruins-Panthers game...and we got to go behind the scenes," Batista said. "We wore Panthers jerseys and they wore Bruins jerseys and the [Panthers' staff] were like, 'You can't [meet the players] wearing that,' and he said, 'Well I'm not taking it off.'" Gardella ended up putting another shirt on over the Bruins jersey to meet the Panthers players, she laughed.

"He was a grease-monkey, always tinkered in the garage, always working on something, very detailed," she said. "[He was] just an easy going great guy."

Family and friends were making funeral arrangements, she said.

The crash investigation is ongoing, the FHP said.

wkroustan@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4303 or Twitter @WayneRoustan

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