Fatal Motorcycle Crash Saturday

Authorities have released the name of the man killed in a motorcycle crash Saturday.

According to a report on file with the Toccoa Post of the Georgia State Patrol says that James Larry Stripling and Janice Stripling were traveling northbound in the right hand lane of Highway 441 on a 2011 Suzuki Motorcycle.

The report says that the 2007 Mitsubishi in front of Stripling began to slow and pull into the emergency lane on the right side of the northbound lanes of Highway 441 because of what the driver of the Mitsubishi believed to be a funeral procession traveling the opposite way in the southbound lanes of Highway 441.

Stripling was unable to slow his motorcycle and rear ended the truck in front him, overturning and sending both himself and the passenger flying.

James Stripling was killed as a result of the crash, and Janice Stripling was airlifted to Greenville Memorial Hospital.

Other law enforcement sources say that the procession the driver of the Mitsubishi slowed and pulled over for was a local benefit ride.