Friends and family of Lauren Perdriau Ward, a 47-year-old Los Altos Hills woman killed Thursday in a bicycle crash with a big-rig, said she was an active mother, a passionate “go-getter” and an avid cyclist out to make the roads safer.

“It’s a huge hole,” Bob Ward, her husband of nearly 30 years, told The Daily News in a phone interview Friday. “She lived a full life and reached and impacted many people.”

Lauren Ward was riding along Alpine Road when her pink Trek bicycle collided with a big-rig near the Interstate 280 underpass at about 3:40 p.m. Thursday. She had left her home on Camino Hermosa Drive at about 3 p.m. after returning from a morning shift at the South Bay Endoscopy Center, where she worked part-time as a registered nurse.

Investigators have determined the big-rig was in the far right lane of westbound Alpine Road and the collision occurred on the left side of the truck, said California Highway Patrol Officer Art Montiel. He added it’s not clear whether Ward pedaled into the big-rig or the truck drove into her. Officers have not yet found any witnesses.

Bob Ward said he and his wife had gone mountain biking in the rain just two weeks ago and she did well. “Basically, her bike-handling skills were pretty damn good,” he said.

Ward, who has cycled competitively, said he didn’t consider the stretch of Alpine Road where his wife was killed to be particularly dangerous compared to other roads in the area, such as Sand Hill.

Lauren Ward was the mother of a freshman daughter and senior son at Mountain View High School, where she had previously worked as a volunteer for the school’s water polo team. She also was heavily involved with the Cupertino Hills Swim and Racquet Club, serving earlier this year as co-president of the swim team.

LeeAnn Constant, a friend who knew Ward through the swim team, said, “she was definitely a take-charge, go-getter person.” A few years ago, Ward organized a six-team championship swim meet at Stanford University.

Bob Ward described his wife as a passionate person who, when she got upset about something, would “go after it.”

Such was the case when their puppy died after drinking antifreeze, he said. Lauren Ward entered state Sen. Joe Simitian’s “There Oughta Be a Law” contest in its first year and suggested legislation that would require antifreeze to include a bittering agent; that way, pets and children would be less likely to consume the poisonous substance. The legislation made its way through the state Senate and was signed into law in 2002.

“I thoroughly enjoyed working with her,” Simitian, D-Palo Alto, said in an interview Friday.

“She was both very gracious and very determined,” he said, recalling that she testified before Senate and Assembly committees, sometimes bringing her family.

Ward’s proactive nature extended to cycling, a passion she shared with her husband.

Veronica Lentfer, a friend who knew Ward through the swim club and went on several bike rides with her, said she was always trying to help make the roads safer for bicyclists.

In May, Ward sent an e-mail to Lentfer’s cycling team, Velo Girls, warning of a hazardous “blind corner” along Camino Hermosa Drive. Ward said in the e-mail that she had asked the city to put up warning signs and trim hedges of a two-story house on the corner.

In January 2009, Ward wrote a letter to the weekly Los Altos Town Crier newspaper titled “Rules of the Road: Respect and Understanding,” in which she acknowledged animosity between some cyclists and motorists, then went on to say: “If we could all have more respect and understanding toward others, life might get a little bit nicer.”

CHP Officer Montiel said the investigation into Thursday’s crash is ongoing. The CHP is withholding the big-rig driver’s statement so it won’t influence what potential witnesses may say later.

No foul play is suspected in the crash and the CHP is asking anyone who may have witnessed it to call investigators at 650-369-6261.

E-mail Jesse Dungan at jdungan@dailynewsgroup.com.