Hughesville motorcyclist killed in St. Mary’s crash

Ambulance crew spotted scene in Loveville

A Charles County man died early Sunday morning, authorities report, when the motorcycle he was riding went off a highway in St. Mary’s and struck a street sign, shortly before an ambulance crew already headed to a hospital came upon the scene of the crash.

Killed in the 1:45 a.m. collision was David Michael Stallard, a 28-yearold Hughesville resident who was thrown from the 2006 Suzuki GSX-R600 that was traveling north on Route 5, on a curve near its intersection with Loveville Road, according to the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office.

About half an hour

earlier, an online dispatch log states, St. Mary’s 911 dispatchers received a call of a heart-related emergency in Charlotte Hall, a first-due response area for the Mechanicsville Volunteer Rescue Squad.

“An ambulance was going back to the hospital [in Leonardtown] with a patient,” and stopped on the highway where the motorcycle collision had occurred, Leonardtown Volunteer Fire Chief John Trossbach said Tuesday. “They were the ones who called it in. They checked the [rider], and determined that he was deceased.”

The rider was in a grassy roadside ditch “a good 50 feet or more … from the point of impact” at the state Route 247 sign near the intersection, the fire chief said, and the motorcycle had traveled about 50 additional feet.

A release from the sheriff’s office issued Sunday afternoon from the preliminary investigation states that “alcohol and speed are considered to be contributing factors.”

“It hadn’t started raining yet,” the fire chief said of the weather conditions.

The sheriff’s office has requested that anyone who may have witnessed the collision, and has not yet provided a statement, to contact Cpl. Vincent Pontorno by calling 301-475-4200, ext. *2337, or by sending email to vincent.pontorno@stmarysmd.com.