Biker airlifted to UT after crash near Townsend
By J.J. Kindred | (jj.kindred@thedailytimes.com)
A Maryland man was hospitalized Wednesday following the second motorcycle crash with injuries in Blount County in the past two days.
Winfred Earl Williams, 65, of Odenton, Md., was riding a silver Honda motorcycle when he lost control and ran off Highway 321 into a ditch adjacent to Century 21 Smoky Mountain Realty in Townsend.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) was dispatched to the scene, along with Blount County Sheriff’s officers, at about 1:45 p.m.
According to THP Trooper Ernest Marion, there were no witnesses to the accident, but he surmised that Williams ran off the road and laid the bike down on the other side of a road sign.
“His head hit the ground, because he showed signs of dilated pupils,” Marion said.
A Seymour man, who was not identified, said he saw Williams lying in the ditch as he and his wife rode by on their motorcycle.
“I never saw it happen,” the man said. “I came around the corner and I saw the motorcycle laying here. I went down, swooped in, turned around and came back up here and saw he was underneath the bike. I had my wife jump off the motorcycle and run (into the Smoky Mountain Realty building) and call 911.
“I pulled the bike off the top of him, pulled him out from under it and had him stabilized,” the man continued. “I turned him over, but he wasn’t sporadically breathing. I got his airway open and he was breathing again. By the time the Rural/Metro ambulance got here, he was starting to talk to us a little bit.”
Williams was transported via LifeStar to University of Tennessee Medical Center, where his condition was unknown. On Tuesday afternoon, Joseph Gotto, 68, of Akron, Ohio, was airlifted to UT Medical Center Tuesday following a crash on “The Dragon.” He was listed in critical but stable condition.
