GAINESVILLE — After flipping her motorcycle in a high-speed crash Wednesday on Browns Bridge, a Forsyth County motorcyclist was taken by ambulance to Northeast Georgia Medical Center-Gainesville.
Georgia State Patrol Cpl. Dallas Van Scoten said the driver, 40-year-old Sarai Aguayo-Garcia of Cumming, was sedated at the hospital. He said her injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.
The wreck occurred about 11 a.m.
“The motorcycle was traveling east across the bridge at a high rate of speed and came up on traffic that was slowed,” Van Scoten said. “Basically, the motorcycle skidded, trying to stop. [She] went around a car and the motorcycle flipped.”
Added Van Scoten: “Speed was likely a factor.”
Witness Joseph Chapman spotted the motorcyclist coming across the bridge in the opposite direction he was traveling.
“I saw her locking the brakes up,” Chapman said. “She came tumbling into my lane, and there was nothing I could do. I stopped the truck, got out and ran to her.”
Chapman said Aguayo-Garcia landed near the trailer attached to his pickup truck. He got out to see if she was OK.
“She was breathing heavily,” Chapman said. “She was gasping.”
The wreck shut down traffic in both directions for nearly an hour on the well-traveled bridge over Lake Lanier that links Forsyth and Hall counties. No other injuries were reported.
Bad wrecks aren’t uncommon along this stretch of road, said Becky Gurney, resident manager of North Lanier Storage on the Hall County side of the lake and less than a mile from the bridge.
“It’s just really bad,” Gurney said.
Since the business opened in April, she has seen traffic backed up on multiple occasions due to wrecks on or near the bridge.
“Our mail carrier, when he tries to slow down to turn into the parking lot, cars will fly past him,” Gurney said. “Pulling out of here is dangerous too.”
She said a lowered speed limit could be the answer.
“[Hall] County does patrol this area,” Gurney said. “But there are speeders who slide right past here.”