Motorcycle operator charged after near collision with farm tractor

Jonah Weese and a 24-year-old woman who was riding with him went off the road and crashed in a ditch on this motorcycle Sunday in Fryeburg. Photo courtesy Fryeburg Police Department

A Fryeburg man traveling at high speed had to ditch his motorcycle to avoid colliding with a slow moving farm tractor, and was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries, police said.

Jonah Weese, 35, of Fryeburg was driving a 2007 Harley Davidson north on Menotomy Road Sunday night when he encountered the tractor operated by a 72-year-old local man, Fryeburg Police Chief Joshua Potvin said in a news release.

Weese and a 24-year-old female passenger went off the road and crashed in a ditch. Neither was wearing a helmet. They were both taken to a local hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.

Weese was later charged with operating an unregistered motor vehicle, operating without a license and operating beyond license restrictions.

“Excessive speed and driver inexperience appear to be contributing factors in this crash,” Potvin said. “The operator was not licensed to operate a motorcycle. The occupants are extremely fortunate they were not more seriously injured.”