Police respond to four motorcycle wrecks within hour

Six people were injured Friday afternoon, two of them seriously, in four separate accidents involving motorcycles.

At 1:20 p.m. a biker on Higwhay 50 West ran into the rear of another vehicle near the Highway 28 turnoff. Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Chuck Allen said the driver and his passenger were both taken by ambulance to a hospital in Incline Village with minor injuries.

At 2:09 p.m. a motorcyclist struck a wall on Griner's Bend, a sharp curve at the south entrance to Virginia City on State Route 342. Allen said the driver suffered a broken ankle and possibly other non-life threatening injuries.

At 2:13 p.m. a motorcyclist wrecked his bike on Geiger Grade near the lookout at the Storey County/Washoe County line. He was taken to the hospital by a friend, said Allen.

And at 2:15 p.m. a motorcyclist from Vacaville, Calif., was eastbound on Highway 50 West when he lost control of his motorcycle one mile east of Spooner Summit.

Passerby Mary Ellen Kinion of Stateline stopped to help.

"I saw a truck stopped and when I went around I saw the bodies," said Kinion, a registered nurse.

A man and women, whose names were not released, were thrown from the bike and were unconscious in the road when Kinion reached them.

An El Dorado County ambulance transporting a patient to Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center also happened by and stopped to assist.

So did members of the Sons of Holy Thunder Christian motorcycle club.

Member Thomas Walsh said he stayed with the downed driver as he regained consciousness and spoke to him, learning his name and that he liked the Oakland Raiders.

"And we prayed," said Walsh.

"That's what we do," his wife Donna Walsh said, "we always pray when we ride."

Thousands of motorcyclists are in the area for Reno's Street Vibrations motorcycle festival which runs through the weekend.