A 61-year-old woman died Friday afternoon after the three-wheeled motorcycle she was driving slammed into a parked vehicle on Dewey Avenue in the Village of Herkimer. She was pronounced dead at the scene, and police say the crash remains under investigation.
Herkimer Police responded to Dewey Avenue at about 4 p.m. on October 16, according to wktv.com. Investigators identified the motorcycle as a Can-Am Ryker, a three-wheeled model, and said it struck a parked vehicle before the woman behind the controls was pronounced dead at the scene. The Newport Dispatch similarly reported that a preliminary investigation found the operator struck the parked car on Dewey Avenue, resulting in fatal injuries.
Emergency crews from multiple agencies converged on the scene to assist. The Herkimer Fire Department and MOVAC both helped at the location, per the same wktv.com report, though police have not released additional details about what led up to the impact.
Investigation Still Open, Few Details Released
Beyond the basic sequence of events, authorities have not disclosed much else. Police have said only that the crash is still under investigation, leaving questions about speed, road conditions or other contributing factors unanswered for now.
The crash adds to a string of motorcycle fatalities in Herkimer County this year. In August, a 21-year-old man died after crashing his motorcycle in the county, as uticaod.com reported. New York State Police in Herkimer had responded to that fatal crash on State Route 8 in the town of Ohio at around 9:30 a.m. on August 18; the outlet later updated its report to include the driver's name.
A Separate Fatal Crash Earlier This Year
That August crash was distinct from another fatal motorcycle accident in the county, in which New York State Police identified the driver as 24-year-old Garrett Bramer of Deansboro. In that incident, the motorcycle was traveling southbound on Route 51 at an unsafe speed when it failed to negotiate a turn and struck a tree, according to a separate report from wktv.com. The impact caused that motorcycle to catch fire, and its operator was pronounced dead at the scene.
Statewide, motorcycle crashes in New York climbed 31 percent between 2020 and 2025, according to data cited by the state's Department of Motor Vehicles, with high-speed riding continuing to rank as the top contributing factor. No cause has been determined for Friday's crash on Dewey Avenue, and Herkimer police have not indicated whether speed or any other factor played a role.
