By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
LACONIA – Traveling across the country on his motorcycle for the 50th time to Sturgis, South Dakota, for the nation’s largest motorcycle rally, Laconia Motorcycle Week Executive Director and State Rep. Charlie St. Clair, D-Laconia, sustained life-threatening injuries when his motorcycle’s rear tire experienced a blowout on Interstate 90 in Avon, Ohio, Tuesday.
Jenn Anderson, who is director of Laconia Motorcycle Week, said Friday from Cleveland that he is at MetroHealth Medical Center with substantial and multiple injuries.
“It’s just like a slow process. They are waiting for a lot of swelling to come down,” she said. He has not regained consciousness.
She noted this was the second time he had a crash while making the 1,586-mile trek to Sturgis.
In 2013 he hit a mule deer on his bike in Nebraska and was significantly injured “but this is worse,” she said.
According to the accident report from the Ohio Department of Public Safety, St. Clair “was traveling westbound on I-90 in the center lane when the motorcycle’s rear tire experienced a blowout, causing the operator to lose control and crash.”
Anderson said a friend who was riding for the first time to Sturgis with St. Clair was behind him and witnessed the crash.
He told her the tire was “shredded” and that he kept the 2000 Harley Davidson up for a distance but then crashed near an on-ramp on 1-90. She noted that witnesses to the crash included three nurses who went to his aid immediately.
The crash occurred Tuesday at about 7 p.m., according to the report. There were no other injuries or vehicles involved.
St. Clair has been in charge of Laconia Motorcycle Week since 1991 and has traveled the country promoting the rally often by riding his Harley to events.
Laconia is considered the third largest rally in the country behind Daytona and Sturgis. It is also the nation’s oldest rally.
A native of Laconia, St. Clair graduated from Laconia High School in 1969 and studied at the University of Colorado at Boulder and has served on the Laconia Planning Board. He has been a state Representative since 2017. He is Belknap County’s only Democrat in the House of Representatives.
Anderson estimated he was about one-third of the way to Sturgis on Tuesday when the crash occurred.
The rally at Sturgis, its 86th, begins today and runs through Aug. 16.