Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Motorcyclist crashes, tangling Frankland

By STEPHANIE HAYES
Published June 11, 2006

TAMPA - A motorcycle crash slowed things to a crawl on the Howard Frankland Bridge on Saturday afternoon.

Motorcyclist Jason Paul Harrill, 22, of Largo was seriously injured. He was being treated at Tampa General Hospital.

Harrill was heading east near the Kennedy Boulevard exit about 2 p.m. when he stopped suddenly for traffic in front of him and was pitched from the bike, said Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Allan Carter.

He was taken to Tampa General Hospital with serious injuries, Carter said.

His helmet, motorcycle jacket, jeans and boots sat in a pile on the one side of the road. His motorcycle lay on the other side of the road, its rear tire torn from the rim.

Nikki Seiler of Sarasota was taking a friend to Tampa International Airport when she witnessed the crash. She leaned against the bridge's guardrail an hour after the crash and described a bloody scene.

"It was very yucky, very yucky," she said

Seiler said Harrill passed her Ford Excursion and was weaving in and out of traffic at a high speed, she said.

"He rode that dotted line in between two cars riding side by side," Seiler said. "It happened so quick. What I don't understand is how that bike didn't hit any cars."

Authorities blocked two lanes.

Traffic as far back as Gandy Boulevard in Pinellas County was forced to inch along the span.

[Last modified June 11, 2006, 06:00:06]