A moped crash off South Road in Chilmark Saturday has claimed the life of a 20-year-old woman who was a passenger on the moped. The operator of the moped, a 20-year-old male, has been airlifted to a hospital in Providence, R.I. with serious injuries, according to police.
Chilmark police confirmed the fatality in a press release just after 5 p.m. Saturday. Police said in the release that the moped had struck a vehicle traveling in the opposite direction.
The names of the people involved in the crash have not been released.
The passenger on the moped was transported to the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital where she was pronounced dead, the press release said. The operator of the moped was air lifted to Rhode Island Hospital in Providence.
Further details about the accident were not immediately available from police. “Due to the serious nature of the accident the Massachusetts state police collision analysis and reconstruction section was notified and will be leading the investigation,” the press release said.
Police were called to the scene on South Road near Stonewood Lane at 11:58 a.m. Saturday. During the response, South Road was closed off for nearly three hours from the mid-Island gas station in West Tisbury to Beetlebung Corner. Chilmark police, fire and tri-town EMS responded, along with Massachusetts state police and their accident reconstruction team.
Traffic was redirected to Middle Road. South Road was reopened around 2:50 p.m., after police and fire officials swept debris from the roadway, using brooms, shovels and a fire hose.
A damaged moped and a black Lexus SUV with damage to its driver side were towed from the scene. At least one other moped was near the accident scene, undamaged.
The fatal accident occurred just south of a fatal 2014 moped accident near the dip on South Road, in which the operator lost control and veered into oncoming traffic.
That accident sparked a renewed movement to ban moped rentals on the Island, which later stalled in the state legislature.
