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“I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a crash with this much loss of life,” state police Capt. Chris Vetter said at a news conference Friday night.
The motorcyclists were riding east on Route 2 in Randolph, about 100 miles northeast of Concord, when the pickup truck, a 2016 Dodge 2500, swerved over the yellow line and “jackknifed” into the motorcyclists’ lane around 6:30 p.m., said Jerry Hamanne, the owner of the Inn at Bowman Bed and Breakfast. The inn, where several of the motorcyclists were staying, was about 1,000 yards from the scene of the crash, he said.
The identities of the victims were not publicly released pending notification of their relatives.
Two of those injured were taken to Androscoggin Valley Hospital in Berlin, New Hampshire. One person was discharged and the other was taken to a tertiary-care center, hospital officials said. Information on the condition of the third injured person was unavailable.
At a news conference Saturday, authorities said the driver of the pickup truck was a 23-year-old man. His identity could not be confirmed. Officials said that the driver lived in West Springfield, Massachusetts, and that he was the only occupant of the truck. No charges had been filed as of Saturday.
Hamanne said that he heard the pickup truck explode and that he could see smoke from his inn. He said he searched the inn to see if any of the guests were doctors. He found one and set out to the crash site.
“It was devastating,” Hamanne said. “Motorcycles were spilled on the highway, and there were parts everywhere. There were bodies scattered over the road.”
He said he saw other drivers get out of their cars with blankets and run to the motorcyclists to help the injured.
“You could hear people screaming and yelling and crying for help,” Hamanne said. “One guy, we got a rope out of a truck to put a tourniquet on his leg to stop the bleeding. It was all so fast.”
The motorcyclists were in the area a week after they had attended the Laconia Motorcycle Week. Hamanne said that the motorcyclists would come once a year in June and that the group in the crash were Marine Corps veterans.
“After several days of rain, people were out,” Charlie St. Clair, the executive director of the Laconia Motorcycle Week rally, said Saturday. “Everyone fears someone crossing a lane, but for motorcyclists, it is a big fear. Unfortunately sometimes it happens so quick that there is no chance to react, and that is probably what happened yesterday.”
St. Clair said the motorcyclists involved in the crash were part of a group called the Jarheads.
“In my years of riding, this just hasn’t happened,” said St. Clair, who has been the executive director of the event since 1992. “So many fatalities at once. To have seven riders go down is just terrible.”
The motorcyclists were headed to a charity event at an American Legion in Gorham, New Hampshire, when the crash occurred, according to a GoFundMe page created by the Jarheads.