A 64-year-old Albany man died Friday after his motorcycle left County Road 50 near Cold Spring and rolled through a ditch, striking a utility pole and a fiber-optic cable box along the way. Stephen Gretsch was riding southbound with two other motorcyclists when his bike went off the road in a curve near Glenwood Road in Wakefield Township, according to the Stearns County Sheriff's Office.
The crash happened around 11:50 a.m. about a mile and a half north of Cold Spring, as WJON reported. Deputies found that Gretsch's motorcycle sustained extensive damage consistent with having rolled after leaving the roadway and entering the southbound ditch. As the station noted, the bike struck both a utility pole and a fiber-optic cable box during the crash.
Additional details reported Tuesday by KARE 11 show Gretsch was riding a 2008 Harley-Davidson Road King and was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash. Law enforcement does not believe alcohol played a role in what happened, according to the same report.
A Local Advocate and Longtime Community Leader
Friends and neighbors knew Gretsch as “Giant,” a nickname noted in an obituary published by Miller-Carlin Funeral Home. He lived with Multiple Sclerosis and had spent nearly 30 years serving on the board of the Albany Golf Club, according to the same obituary. Gretsch was also an active member of A.B.A.T.E. of Minnesota, a motorcycle rights and safety advocacy organization, a detail that lends a painful irony to his death in a rural roadway crash.
Minnesota law does not require adult motorcyclists with full license endorsements to wear helmets; the mandate applies only to riders under 18 or those operating on an instruction permit, per Minnesota Statutes § 169.974 as compiled by the Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. Eye protection, however, is required of all riders regardless of age under that same statute.
Third Fatal Stearns County Motorcycle Crash in Three Weeks
Gretsch's death marks at least the third motorcycle fatality in Stearns County within a three-week span. It follows the August 16 death of 52-year-old Avon resident Kelli Jo Gauthier on County Road 9 near Richmond and the August 15 death of 50-year-old Neil Blenker on Highway 71 near Melrose, according to KNSI. Two of the three crashes involved riders failing to navigate curves on rural county roads, the station reported. Hoodline previously covered Gauthier's death near Richmond and the crash that killed Blenker after his return from the Sturgis rally.
The cluster of local deaths fits into a much larger statewide pattern. Minnesota Department of Public Safety records show 37 motorcyclists had been killed statewide by July 10, a 50% increase over the same point in 2025 that put the state on pace for as many as 90 motorcycle deaths by year's end, according to KARE 11's earlier reporting. State data compiled by the City of Eden Prairie shows motorcycles make up only about 4% of registered vehicles in Minnesota yet account for more than 11% of the state's annual traffic fatalities.
Officials Point to Speed and Inexperience, Not New Lane Laws
Minnesota legalized motorcycle lane splitting up to 25 mph and lane filtering through stopped traffic up to 15 mph effective July 1, 2025. But state traffic safety officials have said that law change has not been linked to this year's spike in deaths, according to WJON's earlier reporting on the trend. Officials instead attribute the rise primarily to rider inexperience, excessive speed, and lack of training.
National research offers a sobering backdrop: motorcycle riders face a fatality rate per mile traveled that is roughly 24 times higher than passenger vehicle occupants, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration figures cited by Betz & Port, P.A. The firm's analysis notes that the absence of a structural enclosure leaves riders exposed to fatal blunt force trauma in crashes that a car occupant might otherwise survive. The County Road 50 corridor near Cold Spring has seen prior safety incidents as well, including a 2025 collision at 245th Street in which an 89-year-old driver turned into an 83-year-old bicyclist, KNSI reported at the time.
Fatal motorcycle crashes in Stearns County have also drawn legal scrutiny in the past year. Hoodline reported in March that a box truck driver faced felony charges after running a stop sign and killing 63-year-old motorcyclist Todd Curtis Thorstad in Sauk Centre. No such charges have been reported in connection with Gretsch's crash, which investigators have described as a single-vehicle incident.
