A 71-year-old motorcyclist has died after his Harley-Davidson slammed into the driver's side of an SUV at a Webster intersection Wednesday evening, an area a nearby resident says is prone to collisions because of a blind spot. The rider was rushed to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, where he later died from his injuries.
According to New York State Police, troopers were dispatched at approximately 6:15 p.m. on Wednesday to the intersection of State Route 104 and Basket Road in Monroe County. As reported by Newport Dispatch, the 71-year-old man was riding a 2014 Harley-Davidson westbound on Route 104 when he failed to stop for a red traffic signal and struck the driver's side of a 2017 Honda Pilot that was traveling southbound on Basket Road. Neither the Pilot's operator nor a juvenile passenger inside the SUV was injured, per the same outlet's reporting.
Scene Shut Down for Hours as Crews Responded
Troopers closed the eastbound lanes of Route 104 near Basket Road and the Wayne County line and rerouted traffic onto Salt Road while emergency personnel cleared the scene and began an initial investigation, according to WYSL NewsPower 1040.
A resident living near the crash site told Finger Lakes Daily News that he heard the collision from inside his home and went outside to see first responders performing CPR on the motorcyclist in the road. The same resident said the intersection sees frequent crashes, pointing to a nearby blind spot as a recurring hazard.
Specialized Units Reconstructing the Crash
Both the New York State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the New York State Police Collision Reconstruction Unit are continuing to investigate, per Newport Dispatch's reporting on the case. The reconstruction unit, which is called out to roughly 100 serious crashes statewide each year, relies on tools including physical skid-mark evidence, drones and digital scene documentation, and vehicle data recorders to piece together what happened, according to a detailed account of the unit's methods.
Part of a Larger Statewide Pattern
The Webster fatality adds to a sobering statewide tally. New York recorded 4,681 personal injury motorcycle crashes and 189 motorcyclist deaths in 2024, according to data from the Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research at the University at Albany. Motorcycle fatalities made up 17 percent of all traffic deaths in the state in 2023.
There are signs of recent improvement, however. Preliminary state data released in December 2025 showed motorcycle crash deaths statewide fell from 157 in the first ten months of 2024 to 134 over the same period in 2025, according to CNHI.
The identity of the motorcyclist has not been released. The investigation into Wednesday's fatal crash remains active as state police work to finalize the sequence of events at the intersection.
