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[naitram]

[size=18]Motorcycle Crash Survivor Describes Scene[/size]
Mass. Man One Of 3 Killed
POSTED: 6:10 am EDT June 12, 2006

STODDARD, N.H. -- Best friends since childhood, Dean Stoddard and Christopher Fontaine worked together and played together.

Last year, they bought new Harleys together, and on Friday, they rode together to New Hampshire for the start of the annual Motorcycle Week festivities in Laconia. But a sweeping curve separated them, for good.

Fontaine, 39, of Chicopee, Mass., was one of three men killed when one motorcycle's swerve into oncoming traffic triggered a crash that also injured five people.

Stoddard said he and Fontaine stopped at a gas station in Stoddard on Friday morning, and met a group of five motorcyclists from Connecticut. They all decided to head east to Laconia together. Fontaine and Stoddard were at the back of the pack when one of the Connecticut motorcyclists collided with a Jeep traveling west.
 

The vehicle lost control and rolled over into the eastbound lane, according to state police, colliding with three other motorcycles.

Stoddard remembers seeing the Jeep coming downhill toward him, "just flipping and flipping."

"All I saw was that Jeep just turning," Stoddard, 41, of Easthampton, Mass., told The Keene Sentinel. "We didn't know where to go."

Stoddard's Harley hit the back of the Jeep, he said. But he managed to get off his bike, uninjured and fully alert. He ran to his friend, but couldn't find a pulse.

"I guess I feel lucky," Stoddard said. "How lucky can I be? I just lost my friend."

Also killed were Steven Leamy, 38, of East Windsor, Conn., and Larry McFetridge, 54, of Bristol, Conn.

Donald Greene, 43, of East Hartford, Conn., was flown to Dartmouth-Hitchock Medical Center, where he was in critical condition. Kurt Neligon, 46, of Granby, Conn., suffered a leg injury. Dean Stoddard, 41, of Easthampton, Mass.; was involved in the crash but wasn't hurt. A seventh motorcyclist was not involved in the crash.

The driver of the Jeep, Deborah Huston, 51, of Bowdoinham, Maine, was treated at the hospital and released, as were two of her passengers.

Stoddard said he checked on the other motorcyclists lying near the Jeep. He couldn't find a pulse on two of them, he said.

"They were all dead right away," Stoddard said. "Three of them were gone like that. The whole scene "was just a mess."

[WFP]

I saw this but did not tell Anne before we left Sunday Morning...

Saw a blue lights and ambulance on the shoulder of 93 just north of Salem...Bike on Kickstand, Helmet and Jacket neatly piled on ground beside bike...don't know if another had gone off the road.

/Bill

[SPIDERMAN]

Small world. The driver of the Jeep is employed by my company's IT provider. I know this same thing happens in Daytona and Sturgis, but somehow it always affected me more with Laconia because all of us New Englanders always felt like Laconia was " Our " rally more than the others. My heart goes out to the families and especially the riding buddies who survived. I remember every year even after 20 + years of attending getting excited the first of June as Laconia rolled around and even though it was only a couple hours from my home in Maine how jazzed we'd be on the ride into Meredith and down into Weir's. This makes me realize how lucky I was to survive not one but two trips to the pavement last year.

[CVOJOE]

Damn, hate to hear this stuff! But it is what we risk doing what we love to do of course. My thoughts are with their family and friends.  

[Jock]

This type event is NEVER a good circumstance...Allow it to serve as a reminder to all of us...