Highway Tragedy Claims Two
Father and son are killed two days after Christmas.
By Bonnie Hobbs
January 10, 2008

Robert Scott Stegner, 49, had longevity in his family. So, said his wife, "He always said he was going to live to 100 and have a long life."
Son Sean, 14, an eighth-grade honor student at Liberty Middle School, had taken the entrance test for Thomas Jefferson High School and would have received his results, the end of January. It was two days after Christmas and life was good.


BUT ON THURSDAY, Dec. 27, on Route 15 in Maryland, their hopes and dreams were ended by a speeding motorist who crashed head-on into their car. The impact killed the motorist and took the lives of the father and son, of Clifton's Little Rocky Run community.
Their deaths leave a huge hole in their tight-knit family. Scott and his wife, Yumiko Nakano Stegner, celebrated their 25th anniversary last year. And besides Sean, they're the parents of Christina, 23, a 2007 UVA grad; Laura, 21, a senior at Longwood University; and Melissa, 12, a seventh-grader at Liberty.
But the suddenness and utter finality of the loss is almost too much for the remaining family members to bear. Melissa is receiving counseling at school, and Yumiko is having a hard time "facing the reality." On Friday, she said, "Even now, it's like they've just gone somewhere and are coming back."
The family's lived in Little Rocky Run for more than two decades. A computer whiz, Scott began working at IBM in Manassas in 1982 and later became a senior program manager at Lockheed Martin in Oakton.
Yumiko, who was born in Tokyo, Japan, met her husband through friends and has been a stewardess with United Airlines since 1991. She flies between Dulles International Airport and Tokyo, on three-day trips, three times a month.
Scott's mother had visited the Stegners for Christmas and, on Dec. 27, he was driving her back to her home in Pennsylvania. "That morning, Melissa was supposed to be in the car, but she didn't want to go," said Yumiko. "So Sean went to keep his dad company because it's four hours each way."
Yumiko had a flight to Japan that day and Scott dropped her off at Dulles at 9:30 a.m. He drove her minivan because it had more room than his smaller car. "I said goodbye to him and Sean, and they headed for Pennsylvania," said Yumiko. "I said, 'See you on Saturday,' because he was going to pick me up."

SHE TOOK OFF at 12:30 p.m. and the accident happened around 5:25 p.m., on Scott and Sean's way back from Pennsylvania. "Dad called me at 5:21 p.m.," said Laura. "He said he was going to avoid traffic [by taking Route 15] and Sean wanted to go shopping for clothes at the Leesburg outlets."
Instead, their lives were cruelly cut short when a woman in a hurry lost control of her Cadillac Escalade SUV in Frederick County, Md., and slammed into them. Maryland State police say another driver had called, just before the collision, to report that a Cadillac heading north on Route 15 was passing cars on the shoulder of the road.
That vehicle, driven by Jennifer M. Adel Carter, 27 ó who had past convictions for drunk driving ó rear-ended a Honda Element and then caromed into the oncoming traffic of southbound Route 15 and the Stegners' minivan. Carter, who lived nearby, also died in the crash.
Meanwhile, Yumiko was on a 14-hour flight, unaware of what had happened. "We found out at 9:30 p.m., but couldn't tell my mom 'til 2:30 a.m., when she landed," said Laura. "We contacted her supervisor in Tokyo, who was waiting at the gate for her."
"When she came on board and told me, I couldn't believe it," said Yumiko. "They put me on a return flight via San Francisco." Her mother, who'd been vacationing in Hawaiii and was told of the tragedy, met Yumiko at San Francisco International Airport and flew back to Virginia with her. They arrived home, Dec. 28, around 8:30 p.m.
Last Friday, Jan. 4, Yumiko, Laura, Christina, their boyfriends, Justin Long and Dave Weiss, respectively, and family friend Kimberly Waller gathered in the Stegner living room to reminisce about happier times.
Yumiko said she and Scott loved to travel and, since her job afforded her some bargains, they took advantage of it last year. In February 2007, they went to Tokyo, and on Easter weekend in April, they were in Sydney, Australia. In June, to celebrate their 25th anniversary, they took their children and both mothers on a 10-day, Caribbean cruise. Then in August, Scott and Yumiko vacationed in Rome.
Scott was a big, Nationals and Redskins fan, and his hobby was photography. Sean played SYA soccer so, naturally, his dad took the team photos, plus pictures of Sean playing. Said Long: "At Redskins games, people thought he was part of the media, his lenses were so large."

"WHEN HE RETIRED, he wanted to travel all over the world and take photos for a living," said Yumiko. "Every time we went somewhere, he took 1,000-2,000 photos. He'd even take 400-500 photos at each soccer game."
Scott also spent lots of time at the computer and had a large and complex set-up at home. Yumiko said he loved online shopping and had purchased lots of Christmas presents that way. "He had his 'Big Deal' sites all bookmarked," added Long. And although initially quiet and shy with strangers, said Long, "Once he found common ground, he'd open up quickly."
As for Sean, his family called him a "little Scott ó smart, and very knowledgeable about computers." He took all honors classes at Liberty and got an "A" in almost every subject. But, said Waller, "He made sure he got one "B+" so he wouldn't have to sit on stage during the honors assembly."
And for six hours every Saturday, for the past eight years, Sean attended the Washington Japanese Language School. But besides language, he also learned math, social studies, history, etc. ó everything taught to Japanese children.
Well-liked, both there and at Liberty, Sean was always smiling, said Waller. "And he'd always try to get under your nerves, just for fun," said Long.
Sean and his siblings also enjoyed competing on Wi and X-Box games. And in photos, said Waller, "They'd stand on tiptoes, trying to be taller than each other."
Long said Sean loved football, too, and had "a ton of songs" on his i-Tunes. "He'd look up the lyrics so he could sing them," added Laura. "And he'd text me with information he knew I'd be interested in, to see if I'd heard it yet," said Long. "And we watched 'Jeopardy' to see who could get the most answers right."
Sean dressed in UVA colors and wanted to attend it, like his sister. "He visited me in Charlottesville and we'd go to the football games together," said Christina. "He'd be in the front row of the student section."
Since the tragedy, neighbors and friends from Liberty have comforted the family, and the Washington-Tokyo Women's Club comes every night with Japanese food. "I've belonged to it since 1990," said Yumiko. She's also received advice from the Japan Care Fund, a nonprofit that helps with crisis situations.

SHE STILL PLANS to keep flying because her mother lives in Toyko. So, said Yumiko, "When I work, I get to see her."
Funeral services for both father and son were held Sunday, Jan. 6, at Centreville United Methodist Church, where Sean and Melissa went to preschool. Burial was at Mt. Laurel Memorial Park in Hazleton, Pa. Memorial contributions may be made to the Melissa Stegner Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 2206, Centreville, VA 20120.
Meanwhile, Yumiko's coping with things, day by day. When she saw their smashed minivan, she said the damage was "more than I expected." But, in a way, it comforted her. "I could rest in peace, knowing that they died without fear ó they never saw it coming," she said. "And Sean went with my husband, so he wasn't alone."