Bicycling Victim Hailed by Disney Colleagues : Tragedy: Charles Bright, worked his way from Jungle Cruise guide to the company’s top creative position in theme park design before being struck, killed by a pickup.

Charles R. Bright, a longtime Disney executive who worked his way up from a Jungle Cruise guide to senior projects manager for the company’s theme parks, was struck and killed by a pickup truck while bicycling near his home, police said Wednesday.

Bright, 51, of Yorba Linda, became the third bicyclist to be killed on Orange County roads this month.

At Disney, officials mourned the loss of a colleague who they said rose to a top executive position through talent and sheer energy.

“I don’t think even Walt could have created a more quintessential believer in the Disney traditions than Randy Bright,” said Martin A. Sklar, president of Walt Disney Imagineering. “His growth from a Jungle Cruise guide and costumed spaceman at Disneyland to the top creative position at Walt Disney Imagineering is the stuff of storybook legends. He was a true dreamer and doer.”

Brea Police Sgt. David Carlock said Bright, described as an avid bicyclist who rode four to five times a week, was crossing the intersection of Village Center Drive and Via Marwah at 3:50 p.m. Tuesday when he collided with a late-model Chevrolet El Camino pickup truck.

Bright was thrown more than 100 feet from his bicycle, Carlock said. Despite wearing a helmet, he died almost instantly of injuries to his head and body.

The driver of the truck, identified by police as Julie Shaffer, 19, was traveling south on Village Center Drive and was not cited in the mishap, Carlock said. She was taken to the Brea police station, where she underwent blood tests for alcohol, and was released.

Traffic investigators on Wednesday gathered data, including the length of the skid marks left by Shaffer’s truck, to determine the cause of the accident, Carlock said.

Carlock said a completed report, which will include the estimated speed of the truck and alcohol test results, will be turned over to the district attorney’s office within two weeks.

“Those skid marks are the most important factor in our investigation right now,” Carlock said, noting that the intersection was “free and clear of all obstructions. We’re really not quite sure at this point what were the factors that made her not see him.”

Shaffer, also a resident of Yorba Linda, declined comment when reached at her home Wednesday afternoon.

“It’s a tragic accident all the way around,” Carlock said, noting that Brea police were handling the case because they provide police services for neighboring Yorba Linda.

Bright’s next-door neighbor, who asked not to be identified, called Bright a “very experienced bicyclist, very safe and very cautious” and always making sure that he was seen by motorists.

Carlock said Bright was wearing bright cycling clothes when he was hit by the truck.

Bright was an executive with Glendale-based Walt Disney Imagineering, the Disney Co. subsidiary that designs, engineers and produces the various attractions and other projects at the five Walt Disney theme parks, Disney spokesman Betsy Richman said.

Bright was hired by Walt Disney Co. in 1959 while a political science student at Cal State Fullerton. He worked his way up in the company from ride handler to senior special projects director for the company’s theme parks in California, Florida and Japan.

“He even played Disneyland’s spaceman who walked around Tomorrowland,” Richman said. As a member of the Imagineering group, Bright worked on a variety of shows and attractions at Disneyland, and later helped create Disney World, where he worked as manager of employee communications for three years.

Bright’s most recent major contributions included researching and co-writing the voluminous book entitled “Disneyland: the Inside Story,” an upbeat history of the theme park.

He also produced a Disney Channel special that commemorated the park’s 35th anniversary, Richman said. That show aired earlier this year.

Funeral arrangements were pending, the neighbor said from Bright’s Via Angelina home.

The death of Bright was the latest in a string of accidents involving bicyclists. The California Highway Patrol said the number of bicycle fatalities in the county has doubled in the past decade.

On May 14, a 66-year-old cyclist was hit while riding home at the end of a daylong, 200-mile cycling trek between Anaheim and Lake Elsinore. And on May 8, a 26-year-old cyclist was killed when he veered across two lanes of traffic and was hit by a Jeep on Pacific Coast Highway in Sunset Beach.