Six people died in accidents involving motorcycles during Bike Week, authorities said.
Also, many bikers suffered serious injuries and were taken as trauma alerts to Halifax Health Medial Center, officials said.
In addition to the six deaths, Bike Week this year, March 5-14 saw multiple motorcycle riders seriously injured in accidents.
Injury and trauma-case figures were not yet available Tuesday morning, but Halifax Health Medical Center spokesman John Guthrie said: “It may be a record-breaking week, unfortunately.”
The fifth Bike Week death occurred in Daytona Beach at 5:27 a.m. on Sunday, the last day of the event. The victim was a 39-year-old woman from Seabrook, New Hampshire, said Daytona Beach police spokesman Messod Bendayan.
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The woman was killed when the motorcycle she was riding on as a passenger was rear-ended by a vehicle on International Speedway Boulevard near the intersection of Hagen Terrace, police said.
The motorcyclist was westbound on International Speedway Boulevard when his hat flew off. So, he made a U-Turn at Hagen Terrace and headed eastbound to pick up his hat. He was stopped in the roadway when his motorcycle was struck from behind by a Toyota RAV 4 sport utility vehicle, police said.
The motorcycle was wedged under SUV and the victim was knocked off the back of the Softail Harley Davidson motorcycle and died at the scene. The driver of the motorcycle, an 18-year-old man from Durand, Illinois, was transported to Halifax Health Medical Center where he was treated for non-life threatening injuries, Bendayan said.
Neither the motorcycle rider nor the victim were wearing helmets, police said.
The driver of the SUV, a 25-year-old man from Warner Robbins, Georgia, agreed to have his blood drawn after officers noticed possible signs of impairment. A passenger in the SUV was not injured, investigators said.
Charges have not been filed as a full investigation needs to be done, Bendayan said.
Several hours later, at 12:50 a.m. Monday, shortly after Bike Week officially ended, motorists found a motorcyclist dead in the roadway in the 300 block of Airport Road, Ormond Beach police said.
The deceased man was Periat Florentin, 42, of Ormond Beach.
The single-motorcycle crash remains under investigation and Ormond Beach police are asking anyone who has information on the crash to contact Officer James Feeley at [email protected].
There were six motorcycle-related deaths during Bike Week in 2020, according to News-Journal research last year, and one fatality in 2019.
The first Bike Week death of 2021 occurred on Pioneer Trail and Cypress Springs Parkway near New Smyrna Beach on March 5, the first day of event. A 57-year-old New Smyrna Beach man lost his life when he lost control of his motorcycle and crashed, the Florida Highway Patrol said.
On March 10, a 33-year-old rider was killed when his motorcycle crashed at Country Lane and Taylor Road in Port Orange, police said.
The third motorcycle crash fatality occurred on Interstate 95 near Ormond Beach on March 11.
A 59-year-old man from Signal Hill, California, was killed. The rider was northbound on I-95 when his motorcycle ran off the highway and rolled over. The rider was taken to Halifax Health Medical Center, where he died, troopers said.
The fourth death of Bike Week occurred Sunday night in Port Orange, the second motorcycle fatality that police worked in their city.
The fourth death was a South Carolina man, Isaac Ferguson, who was killed when his motorcycle crashed with a vehicle at the intersection of Nova Road and Sleepy Hollow Drive in Port Orange on Sunday at 7:22 p.m., police said.
Ferguson was transported to Halifax, where he died, Port Orange traffic homicide investigators said.
Ferguson’s passenger, Nadine Smith of Ohio, was taken to Halifax and is in stable condition, police said.
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