Three killed in weekend motorcycle wrecks

Tuesday, May 19, 2009
By NOREEN HYSLOP Managing Editor

It was a deadly weekend involving motorcycles for three area residents.

A Bernie Man, 41-year-old Ronald P. Craver, lost his life in an accident Sunday afternoon when the motorcycle he was driving hit the rear of a Honda ATV that had slowed to make a left turn. As a result, the driver of the ATV faces several felony charges, including involuntary manslaughter. (See related story)

According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the accident occurred at 5:30 p.m. Sunday on Rt. Z, seven miles east of Bernie. The Patrol states that Michael D. Norman, 37, of Dexter, was driving the ATV, a 1985 Honda. Norman's seven -year-old son, Dalton M. Norman, was riding on the motorcycle as a passenger with Craver. Both occupants of the motorcycle, as well as Michael Norman, were ejected from their vehicles upon impact and Craver was pronounced dead at the scene.

The child, Dalton Norman, was taken by ambulance to a Cape Girardeau medical facility with moderate injuries. Michael Norman, his father, was uninjured.

Craver was an employee of Allied Waste, where for several moments Monday morning, work ceased and silence prevailed to honor his memory. His death marks the 24th vehicle fatality in Troop E for 2009.

Poplar Bluff couple killed

Another wreck involving motorcycles claimed the lives of a Poplar Bluff couple just after noon on Sunday in Fulton County, Ark.

Gerald Hayes, 58, was reportedly driving a motorcycle southbound on Hwy. 63, 10.5 miles south of Mammoth Springs, with his wife, Margaret Hayes, 57, as a passenger, when a northbound car driven by 17-year-old Joshua Ray of Cherokee Village, turned into the motorcycle's path.

According to Arkansas State Police, the Hays couple was ejected from the motorcycle and killed.

A second motorcycle, driven by Michael Strupp, 45, and carrying Kimberly Strupp, 43, both of Harviell, was following the Hays cycle and police say the driver laid the motorcycle down to avoid also hitting the car that had turned in their path. Both Michael and Kimberly Strupp sustained injuries, although the extend of those injuries is not known.

Gerald Hays was a familiar face in the local automotive sales industry and for the past six years had been affiliated with Blackwell-Baldwin's Dexter facility as a sales representative.

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You wanna buy your kid their last present...make it a motorcycle. I am a free spirit and would LOVE to cruise on a "hog", but can't and won't. Hate hearing stories like this. A small accident in a car/truck=fenderbender. A small accident on a cycle=?

-- Posted by shannonhoon on Tue, May 19, 2009, at 11:44 AM

A 'small' wreck on a bike is when you drop it in the drive way, going 90 and hitting a rock is very bad, getting thrown off..very bad, laying it down to avoid a wreck: still bad, running a highway peg thru your leg very very bad. I like bikes but you have to hope your bag of experience doesn't get full before your bag of luck runs out, and visa-versa.

-- Posted by bobby wayne on Tue, May 19, 2009, at 12:59 PM

A motorcycle rider's two biggest fears:

1) The approaching cager who attempts to turn left in front of the bike at the point where there is NOTHING the bike rider can do. This is what happened to the Poplar Bluff couple. No time to react.

2) The cager who pulls out in front of a bike at the last moment...when there is absolutely NOTHING the bike rider can do.

Please look twice for motorcycles...you may save a life.

-- Posted by Bearcat72 on Tue, May 19, 2009, at 5:26 PM