A 49-year-old Windsor man was transported to hospital with critical injuries after the motorcycle he was driving flipped and landed on top of him in front of dozens of horrified festival-goers and pedestrians in west Windsor Sunday morning.
The motorcycle crash occurred shortly before 10 a.m. in the 3200 block of Sandwich Street a portion of the street that had been closed for the weekend for the Olde Sandwich Towne Festival. No one else was hurt.
We were walking and all of a sudden we heard this screeching, so we turned around and I guess he lost control and he and his bike flipped a couple of times over the little stone plant things on the sidewalk and landed on him, said Nicole Bonk, who had been walking her baby in a stroller just steps ahead of where the man landed.
Bonk watched in shock with her baby in her arms as dozens of people rushed to the crash site to help.
Moments after the crash, the man was motionless under the motorcycle, face down on the concrete sidewalk as a group of people gathered around him. The mans left boot was located in the grass beside Mackenzie Hall.
Beside him, a black iron lamp post he had crashed into was split in half knocked down on the street, along with a black steel garbage can that had been knocked over. Garbage spewed onto the sidewalk beside him.
The first emergency responder to arrive on the scene was a Windsor police officer who ran up to the man and began yelling: Sir, can you hear me? Can you hear me?
The officer turned to the crowd for assistance and about four men and two women helped him pull the motorcycle off of the man.
Several watched in horror, some with hands over their mouths and tears welling up in their eyes, as firefighters and paramedics arrived on the scene minutes later.
Emergency workers then cut his leather jacket off from his back while he remained still, facing the ground. They rolled the man onto a board and then onto a stretcher.
The man was transported to hospital about a half hour after the crash.
Police said Sunday afternoon the man was in critical condition in hospital.
Billie Zacher, owner of Billies Place restaurant located down the street from where the crash occurred had been hosting several members of the Olde Sandwich Towne BIA as a sort of wrap-up to the weekends festivities when they heard the loud motorcycle approaching.
I was inside cooking and heard the motorcycle zoom past, so we all ran out and watched him come zoom down and right through the barricades, said Zacher. I mean theres signs everywhere saying Street Closed.
She and her customers rushed to the crash scene.
Geraldine Steward was one of several who immediately called 911.
Steward said she was waiting for the Rexall down the street to open when all of a sudden we heard a motorcycle started to rev its engine, and once it started, it started revving faster and faster.
She said she saw the man drive through white barriers at the end of the block then crash into the lamp post and garbage can, sending him and his bike flying in the air.
Steward said she and several others rushed to the mans side following the crash.
Everyone was trying to yell at me saying Hes gone, don’t bother, but I knew he wasn’t gone, said Steward. I could see he was just barely moving his head and then a couple of minutes later I saw the bike moving and he was underneath, so that meant he had to be moving.
Steward said she was telling everybody to keep away from the man because I know youre not allowed to touch someone like that in an accident.
About an hour after the crash, after the man was taken away in an ambulance and Steward gave her statement to police, she said she was starting to feel shaken up by the ordeal.
I don’t panic at first. I go into a mode like I did with my kids growing up help them now because something worse could happen if you don’t, said Steward.
Eve Yang, another witness, was in disbelief following the crash.
I was walking down the street and I saw the motorbike coming so quickly and go straight through the white fences and the white fence flipped in the air, said Yang.
And then he went to turn and I saw the motorbike hit the planter on the sidewalk and he flipped and the motorbike landed on him. I have never seen anything like that. It was so scary.
Cassie McArthur, who lives in an apartment on Sandwich Street right across the street from where the crash occurred, said she ran to her window when she heard the noises from the crash.
I just heard uncontrolled wheels on pavement, said McArthur. It wasn’t a squeal, just like before a squeal, when youre trying to regain control. And I heard him hit the concrete and then the pole knock over. When I came out to the window, I saw him already lying on the ground under the bike.
Windsor police are continuing to investigate the cause of the crash.
Read Here: http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2013/09/08/motorcycle-crash-sends-man-to-hospital/