July 26, 2007

Four die on Graystone Lane

Speeding car loses control, kills two pedestrians

By Carol Rosen
Editor

Four people died Monday, July 23 on Graystone Lane when a car driven by Eric James Satterstrom, 19, went out of control veered east killing pedestrians Inder and Uma Batra, then veered west up over the sidewalk, crashed into a tree and exploded.

John Dixon, a friend of Max Harding, looks at the memorial surrounding the tree Harding and Eric Setterstrom crashed into the night of July 23. Harding and Dixon went through elementary, middle and high school together. “It’s terrible, it’s horrible to lose a friend. I’ve lost a good friend.” Photos by Dan Miranda

Also killed was passenger 18-year old Maxwell James Harding. Harding was a graduate of Leland High School and attended DeAnza College. He lived in the neighborhood near where the accident occurred. Satterstrom graduated from Valley Christian High School and was a student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

The Batras are longtime Almaden residents, although they spent half the year in Chicago where he was chairman of the Physics Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He previously worked at IBM’s Almaden Research Center.

All four were pronounced dead at the scene. California Highway Patrol officers said it appeared the cause of the crash was speeding, estimating that Satterstrom’s Nissan 350Z was going 80 mph in a 35 mph zone. While the CHP said that they had not detected nor was there any evidence of alcohol, they were awaiting the coroner’s autopsy results.

There was a strong smell of gasoline, according to the CHP. But it appeared that the excessive speed caused Satterstrom to lose control as Graystone Lane curves. The road is known as the racetrack because it is long and straight but curves as it nears Vista Del Roble Place.

Inder Batra

Max Harding grew up in Almaden and was a member of a tightly knit family, said Leland Assistant Principal Cliff Mitchell. “Max was well liked by everyone. He was fun to be with and was a good student with mostly As and Bs,” Mitchell said. He also played sports throughout his freshman, sophomore and junior years.

“My son Ryan is terribly shaken up,” said Kathy Gomez, an Almaden resident and director of educational services for Evergreen School District. “They ate lunch together during their freshman and sophomore years at Leland. It’s just tragic and it’s very disturbing.”

Eric Satterstrom graduated from Valley Christian in 2006 with a grade point exceeding 4.0, said Dan Meester, an administrator and college counselor at the school. “He took extremely high-end classes including honors and advanced placement classes. He was well liked and was known as having a dry sense of humor,” Meester said. Spanish teacher Mary Riley said that she “appreciated having him in her class because he could take charge and everyone had a good time” but still learned.

His parents were active at the school, supporting the band after his sister Krysta graduated in 2004.

Inder Batra’s career spanned more than three decades. The PhD was a theoretical physicist in the Materials Sciences Department at the Almaden Research lab. He spent a good portion of his career in Almaden, but also working at the company’s research labs in Watson and Zurich before retiring in 1997 and turning to the academic world. According to IBM, he was “engaged in cutting-edge fundamental and technical issues ranging from optical absorption in semiconductors, the underlying theory of scanning tunneling microscopy, to the stability and transport properties of nanostructures.”

Skid marks were still visible on Graystone Lane at the site of the accident on Wednesday afternoon.

He joined IBM in 1969.

Batra received degrees in physics the B.Sc. and M.Sc. in 1962 and 1964, respectively, from Delhi University, India, and his Ph.D. in 1968 from Simon Fraser University, Canada. He was a member of the American Physical Society.

“He was a successful IBM research scientist,” said Dr. Michael Philpott, an independent researcher and consultant who worked with Batra at the Almaden Research Center. “He was a successful computational and theoretical physicist.” The research center only hired smart people “and he was very smart,” Philpott said.

Batra also collaborated on various scientific and physical concepts including scanning microscopy working with colleagues from the academic world at Stanford University and internationally. He wrote a number of papers with fellow physicist Dr. S. Ciraci, who works at the Department of Physics Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.

Dr. Philpott occasionally saw the Batras socially. “Inder was friendly and affable, and his wife was an attractive Indian lady who was clearly well educated.” Friends indicate the couple had two grown daughters, at least one of whom recently graduated from Harvard University.

Funeral services for the four were unavailable at press time.