By Christina Beam


A few seconds earlier, a few seconds later, and it might not have happened, Dave Zimmerman said Wednesday, surrounded by friends and family at his North Freedom kitchen table.

The youngest of the three Zimmerman sons, 23-year-old Tanner, was gone, struck on his motorcycle the night before by a car that crossed the center line on a curvy two-lane highway outside Merrimac.

Tanner, a boisterous, loving, magnetic young man who could travel in a 50 mile radius and find someone he knew, loved every moment of his life, Dave and mom Lynn said.

"He wasn't cheated on life... except that is was cut short," his father said.  "He had so much life left to live."

Tanner was riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle back from Merrimac toward Baraboo on Highway 113 at about 8:20 p.m. Tuesday with his employer and long-time family friend Jerry Sprecher, 45, and Ron Hart, 45, who were each on their own bikes.

A sedan driven by Jerrad O'Donnell, 22 of Prairie du Sac, crossed the center line and collided with the three motorcycles.  None of the men were wearing helmets.  Zimmerman and Hart both died at the scene, and Sprecher, who was transported to St. Clare Hospital, was in fair condition Wednesday morning.

The tragedy left the close-knit Zimmerman family in shock, but also with an indication of how much their son had meant to so many people.

Friends filtered into their home all day, and cases of beer and soda and fruit baskets arrived for the family of the guy who knew --- and earned the affection of --- everyone he met.

"If he knew you he's apt to drop you back and give you a big smooch," Lynn said with a smile.  "He had a huge heart and would do anything for anybody."

"Ask anybody in Baraboo who knew him and they would say the same thing," said Tanner's sister-in-law, Melanie Zimmerman.

"And everybody knew him," Lynn said.

Tanner graduated from Baraboo High School in 2001 and was five years into a plumbing apprenticeship and ready to take his journeyman's test.  For the past 3-1/2 years he had worked for Sprecher's company, Sprecher Plumbing, and he was in the slow and focused process of building his own home on Highway PF, just down the road from his parents.

Tanner met his high school sweetheart and longtime girlfriend Kayla Pfaff when she was a wrestling cheerleader and Baraboo High School and he a wrestler.

"There was never a dull moment," she said.

Pfaff remembered helping Tanner build the stairs in his home, and running to the store for him to pick up more screws or plywood.  The home building, she said, was slowed some by Tanner's willingness to drop what he was doing and come to the aid of someone else.

"He was so selfless," she said.  "He was always putting everybody else first."

Tanner was in his element in the outdoors, and since snaring his first deer at the age of 12 he had been hunting and fishing from Texas to Wisconsin to Ontario, his dad and brothers Chad and Jeremy said.

He was a member of the North Freedom Road and Gun Club, and St. Paul's Church in North Freedom.  He followed his father, a 20-year veteran of the North Freedom Fire Department, into the field and was a volunteer firefighter and a first responder.

Just last week, Dave said, father and son helped put out a house fire in North Freedom.

"He always wanted to get a picture of me and him in out turnout gear, and we just kept putting it off and putting it off," he said.  "Now I wish we would have."