A Sonoma County man and his daughter who died last month in a Utah freeway crash were the father and sister of “Bridgerton” author Julia Quinn.
“I have lost my father and my sister,” she said in a social media post Wednesday. “Because a catering company did not secure their load and canvas bags spilled onto the highway. Because a pickup driver thought nothing of driving while his blood alcohol level was nearly 3 times the legal limit.”
Stephen Lewis Cotler, 77, of Healdsburg, and Ariana Elise Cotler, 37, of North Salt Lake, were killed on June 29 on Interstate 15 in Kaysville, Utah, between Salt Lake City and Ogden, the Utah Highway Patrol said.
Their Toyota Prius was one of several cars that had slowed suddenly after a load of canvas bags fell from a catering vehicle onto the roadway. The Prius was struck from behind by a Ford F-250 pickup truck and pushed into the Chevrolet Malibu in front of it.
Both of the Cotlers died at the scene, and Ariana Cotler’s dog was also killed. Three people in other cars were injured.
The driver of the pickup, a 38-year-old man from Bluffdale, Utah, was arrested on suspicion of two counts of DUI automobile homicide, three counts of DUI causing serious injury, DUI, driving with an open container in his car, and following the car in front of him too closely, the Highway Patrol said.
Court records say his blood alcohol level was 0.146%.
Steve Cotler, a native of Oxnard, retired from a career that included stints as a computer engineer, a securities analyst at San Francisco’s Montgomery Securities and assistant to the president of United Artists. He was a screenwriter, science enthusiast and author of the “Cheesie Mack” kids’ books, said a tribute posted online by his family.
Ariana Cotler, his youngest daughter, was a cartoonist under the name Violet Charles. She had just finished writing a graphic novel with Quinn; it was to be dedicated to their father, her sister’s tribute said.
Quinn, 51, is the Seattle-based author of the eight-novel “Bridgerton” series of historical romances, which provided the basis for a hit Netflix series.