Habersham Man Killed in Rabun Motorcycle Wreck

By Charles Robertson, WRBN Radio, Clayton

A Mt. Airy man is dead and his wife injured after a motorcycle crash in northeast Georgia over the weekend.

The Toccoa Post of the Georgia State Patrol said that James Larry Stripling and Janice Stripling, both of Mt. Airy, were traveling northbound in the right hand lane of U.S. Highway 441 on a 2011 Suzuki motorcycle on Saturday.

According to the report, the 2007 Mitsubishi in front of Stripling began to slow and pull into the emergency lane on the right side of the northbound lanes of Highway 441 because of what the driver of the Mitsubishi believed to be a funeral procession traveling the opposite way in the southbound lanes of Highway 441.

The GSP said Stripling was unable to slow his motorcycle and rear ended the truck in front him, overturning and sending both himself and the passenger flying.

Troopers said that James Stripling was killed as a result of the crash, and Janice Stripling was airlifted to Greenville Memorial Hospital.

Law enforcement sources said that the procession the driver of the Mitsubishi slowed and pulled over for was a local benefit ride.