Motorcycle crash claims well-known member of Berks County's Oley Valley community

May 24—A crash that claimed the lives of an Exeter Township couple happened when an SUV pulled into the path of their three-wheel motorcycle from a stop sign in Oley Township, Central Berks Regional police said Monday.

Terry A. Hafer, 62, and his wife, Bonnie A., 62, died in the crash about 10:15 p.m. Friday at Friedensburg and Wiest School roads, officials said.

The couple had been out to dinner in Hamburg with their daughter, Tiffany Ollar, of Exeter, and her husband, Justin, and were returning home when the crash occurred, Detective Sgt. Deron Manndel said.

Manndel said the couple's daughter and son-in-law came upon the crash shortly after it happened.

Investigators are still reconstructing the crash, but Manndel said the preliminary findings show Terry Hafer was driving a Harley-Davidson trike, a type of motorcycle with two wheels in the back, south on Friedensburg.

An SUV driven by Judith Williams, 72, of Alsace Township pulled into the path of the motorcycle while trying to cross Friedensburg from the east side of the intersection, Manndel said. The motorcycle collided with the passenger side of the SUV.

The Hafers were wearing helmets but didn't survive the crash, police said.

Terry Hafer and Bonnie Hafer were pronounced dead at the scene at 11:23 p.m. and 11:21 p.m., respectively, by Deputy Coroner Todd Kegerise. No autopsy was ordered, and the deaths were ruled accidental.

Williams and her passenger, her husband Lawrence, 73, were uninjured, police said.

"Both she and her husband said they looked that way and just didn't see anything," Manndel said. "Based on the preliminary investigation, right now it looks like it was a tragic accident."

Terry Hafer was an Oley Valley High School graduate and a longtime business owner in Oley Township, according to his cousin, Kenneth Cleaver, 74, of Smyrna, Del. For more than 30 years he owned Oley Lawn Equipment, a small-engine repair shop near Route 73 and Friedensburg Road and for many of those years owned an adjacent beer distributor.

"Terry was very well known in the community of Oley," said Cleaver, who also graduated from Oley Valley High.

Cleaver said his cousin only recently was released from the hospital after a bout with COVID-19 that had landed him in the intensive care unit, nearly taking his life.

Cleaver said his younger cousin was married to Bonnie for about 30 years. Besides their daughter, Terry has a son, Matthew, from his previous marriage.

Cleaver has lived out of the area for decades so he wasn't intimately familiar with his cousin's wife.

"He's 12 years younger than me," he said of Terry Hafer. "I knew him since he was born. He was always industrious, self-motivated, a go-getter."

Working on engines was Terry Hafer's passion. He also liked to race. For many years he owned a stock car that he raced at Grandview Speedway in Bechtelsville, Cleaver said.

___

(c)2021 the Reading Eagle (Reading, Pa.)

Visit the Reading Eagle (Reading, Pa.) at readingeagle.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.