Man dies July 4 in Great Smoky Mountains motorcycle accident near Cherokee
A man died July 4 in a two-vehicle motorcycle accident in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Rangers responded to a report of a motorcycle collision at about noon along Newfound Gap Road/U.S. 441, according to a park news release.
Roger Clyde Anders Jr., 50, of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, lost control of his motorcycle, hit another motorcycle in front of him, and then veered into oncoming traffic, according to the statement.
Anders then collided with a small SUV about 12 miles north of Cherokee. He died from his injuries.
Park rangers, Cherokee Indian Police Department officers, Cherokee Tribal EMS and Cherokee Fire Department responded to the scene.
Newfound Gap Road, a 33-mile, heavily used artery connecting Cherokee and Gatlinburg on the Tennessee side of the Smokies, was closed for about three hours by the accident. The road was reopened at about 3:30 p.m.
This is the sixth fatality in the Smokies so far this year, and the second motorcycle-related death. In April, Janice Cadotte, 56, of Greenville, South Carolina, died in a single-motorcycle accident on Foothills Parkway West.
There were also two deaths by suicide, a 71-year-old man who died of cardiac arrest in the Clingmans Dome parking area in April, and in June, a 64-year-old man was killed after his Jeep Grand Cherokee was struck by a fallen tree.
The Smokies is the busiest national park, with 11.4 million visitors in 2018.