Man Killed In Woodside Crash ID'd: Was A Top 30 Runner In The 1970s

Woodside, CA- The Santa Clara County medical examiner's office has identified a 71-year-old Cupertino man who died in a solo-vehicle crash Wednesday afternoon in Woodside as Richard Stiller.

California Highway Patrol officers received a call at 12:30 p.m. of a crash on northbound Interstate Highway 280 south of Farm Hill Boulevard where Stiller was driving a gold 2015 Honda Accord and veered off the road.

The Honda hit a light pole, continued down an off-ramp and hit a tree, CHP officials said.

Stiller suffered major injuries and was taken to Stanford Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Stiller had a seatbelt on and was the only person in the car.

Stiller ranked among the top 30 runners in Northern California in the late 1970s, according to a profile of him on Bob Anderson's Ujena Fit Club website. Stiller's fastest mile time was 4 minutes, 31 seconds.

CHP officers do not know whether drugs or alcohol played a part in the crash, although it did not appear so at the scene.

Anyone with more information about the crash is asked to call Officer Brian Wester at (650) 369-6261.

(Editor's note: A little over two years ag0, Stiller posted an article on Bob Anderson's Ujena Fit Club website entitled "Losing my Edge" in which he said:

Several times in my sixties I’ve tried to get back into racing. It hasn’t worked out for me. That racer’s edge I had at age fifty, the one that I quietly stepped away from, is pretty much gone.

You can read the full article here.)

- By Bay City News, image via Shutterstock