Motorcycle rider critical after car crash near UC Berkeley
Berkeley's Fatal Accident Investigation Team has been called in.
A man is in critical condition after colliding with a vehicle while riding a motorcycle in Berkeley shortly after midnight Sunday.
The crash happened at Channing Way and Fulton Street at about 12:10 a.m., Berkeley police said.
An occupant in the car, a dark-colored BMW sedan, called 911 to report the crash, authorities said.
Scroll down for an update to the story.
As of publication time, the circumstances of the collision remained under investigation.
Berkeley's Fatal Accident Investigation Team — BPD traffic officers who handle fatal and serious crashes — have been called in.
The motorcycle rider, a man in his 40s, is not from Berkeley, authorities said.
He was taken to the hospital with injuries that appeared potentially life-threatening.
As of 2 a.m., the BMW remained parked in the roadway facing south on Fulton just below Channing Way with the downed motorcycle on the ground beside it. The driver's side appeared to have sustained damage in the collision.
Police used yellow caution tape to set up a perimeter for a block in each direction from the crash scene. Several patrol vehicles were parked in the area with their lights on.
Students walking by paused in the street to ask what happened.
The involved driver remained at the scene and was cooperative, authorities said. No additional information about him was available.
This story will be updated when additional details are available.
Update, June 22: The motorcycle rider remains alive in critical condition as of Monday, police said.
Over the weekend, a witness told The Scanner that the motorcycle rider had been speeding down Channing Way, heading west, before the crash.
The rider ran the prior stop sign, the witness said, and then collided with the BMW as it turned left onto Fulton Street.
"I think, if the BMW was not there, the motorcyclist would have blown past this [stop sign] as well," he said. "He did start to brake but it was too late."
Update, June 23: As of Tuesday, the rider remains in critical condition, police said. BPD provided the following statement. It appears below in full.
On June 21 at approximately 12:09 a.m., emergency personnel responded to the 2400 block of Fulton Street following a collision involving a motorcycle and a passenger vehicle.
Upon arrival, officers found the motorcyclist unconscious and suffering from severe head injuries. The rider, a man in his 40s, was transported by the Berkeley Fire Department to a local hospital, where he remains in critical condition. The driver of the passenger vehicle, a man in his 20s, remained at the scene and is cooperating with investigators.
Due to the severity of the collision, the Berkeley Police Department’s Fatal Accident Investigation Team (FAIT) responded and assumed responsibility for the investigation.
Although the investigation remains ongoing, preliminary information indicates that the driver of the passenger vehicle slowed to a near stop at the westbound Channing Way/Fulton Street stop sign. The motorcyclist, who was also traveling westbound, subsequently collided with the rear of the vehicle.
