Motorcyclists injured on final day of rally

GALVESTON — Two motorcyclists were seriously injured on the final day of the Lone Star Rally, authorities said Monday.

Meanwhile, detectives asked for the public’s help in determining who was at fault in a wreck that seriously injured a Rosharon woman.

Both crashes happened Sunday on the final day of the rally that brought thousands of riders to the annual Galveston event. Galveston police worked nearly a dozen motorcycle crashes, including two that killed three riders Friday and Saturday.

At 7:20 p.m. Sunday, police were called to the 15000 block of FM 3005 to investigate a crash between a motorcycle and a truck, Capt. Jeff Heyse, a Galveston police spokesman, said.

Officers found medical crews tending to motorcycle driver Michael Brett, 57, of Galveston, who had suffered a severe head injury. He wasn’t wearing a helmet, Heyse said.

“Brett was riding a motorcycle at a very high rate of speed and passing everyone,” Heyse said of police interviews with witnesses. “Brett was reportedly changing lanes when he drove into the rear of a Ford F-250, also traveling westbound.”

An ambulance took Brett to the University of Texas Medical Branch. He was very badly injured, Heyse said.

The other major accident happened at 5:30 p.m. Sunday when two motorcycles collided while traveling west in the 2600 block of Seawall Boulevard, Heyse said.

The wreck injured a 44-year-old woman from Rosharon who was a passenger. She too wasn’t wearing a helmet and suffered a severe head injury, Heyse said. Police withheld her name until authorities could reach her relatives.

The medical status of the others involved in that crash could not be determined Monday.

The cause of the wreck remained under investigation Monday, and Heyse asked any witnesses to call police Sgt. Mark Pilsner at 409-765-3762 or detective Michelle Sollenberger at 409-765-3770.