September toll spikes for motorcycle riders

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September toll spikes for motorcycle riders

Article by: Star Tribune
Updated: September 27, 2012 - 7:49 PM

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September has joined August as the deadliest months this year for motorcycle riders in Minnesota.

A rider involved in a crash with a car over the weekend south of Bemidji died on Wednesday evening in a Fargo hospital, authorities said.

Michelle Sugar, 38, of Bemidji, was killed in the collision, according to the Beltrami County Sheriff's Office.

Sugar is the 10th motorcycle rider to die this month and the 49th to die this year. The number of fatalities this year already has surpassed the 42 for all of 2011. August also saw 10 motorcycle riders killed.

Sugar was riding on a motorcycle operated by Bradley Mordini, 42, of Bemidji, when the bike collided with a car at Becida and Fern Lake Roads SW. in Grant Valley Township, the Sheriff's Office said.

The two on the motorcycle suffered "extreme injuries" and were taken to Sanford Fargo Hospital, the Sheriff's Office added. Mordini was in critical condition on Thursday afternoon, said Sheriff Phil Hodapp. Neither rider was wearing a helmet, the sheriff added.

The two people in the car were not hurt. The 26-year-old driver, from Bemidji, had a small amount of marijuana in his possession and admitted using the drug shortly before the crash, the Sheriff's Office said.

The driver turned left in front of the motorcycle coming the other way, failing to yield, the Sheriff's Office said. He was ticketed on suspicion of criminal vehicular operation, a gross misdemeanor, pending the outcome of chemical tests.

Once the test results are known, the county attorney's office could charge the driver with criminal vehicular homicide, a felony.

PAUL WALSH