Joe Perry Crash

Posted 17 Jul 2010 in Artist News, Guitarist Antics

From the Taunton Daily Gazette:

MIDDLEBORO — A rock star on a high-end Italian motorcycle gets rear-ended, and Middleboro becomes the momentary center of the media universe.

Police scrambled to field phone calls Thursday afternoon, after word spread that Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry had been sent to the hospital after a fender-bender at the intersection of routes 44 and 105.
The phone rang off the hook at the police station, and at least one Boston TV station sent a news helicopter to survey the scene.
“It’s pretty crazy in here, just for a minor motor vehicle accident,” Middleboro officer Bradley Savage said.
But that minor accident becomes a big media story when one of the drivers is among the region’s most famous residents, a guitar god whose low-slung Les Paul and raucous, bluesy style helped define the ‘70s arena-rock look and sound.
Middleboro police said Perry was eastbound on a 2009 Ducati motorcycle about 2:30 p.m. when he stopped at a set of lights at the intersection. The light turned green, Perry accelerated and was rear-ended by a 2001 Chevy Malibu, police said.
He was taken by ambulance to Morton Hospital and Medical Center in Taunton, authorities said. A hospital spokeswoman said Perry was treated and released.
The driver of that car, 62-year-old Linda O’Brien of Middleboro, was cited for following a vehicle too closely.
Police said a family member collected Perry’s motorcycle after the crash.  He was wearing a helmet, police said.
The crossing at routes 44  and 105 is a dangerous one for  motor vehicles, a police officer said.
From 2006 to 2008, one person was killed and 37 others were injured in 74 separate crashes at that intersection, according to the most recent data from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.
The sound of the crash could be heard from yards away, according to an officer who was working a roadside detail at a nearby intersection and responded to the scene.
While Perry was not seriously injured, it’s unknown whether Thursday’s accident will affect Aerosmith’s Aug. 14 performance with the J. Geils Band at Fenway Park.
The guitarist, 59, has suffered from nagging knee pain since falling offstage in Dallas in the late 1980s. He had a total knee replacement in late 2008.
A spokesman for Live Nation, the promoter of the concert, could not be reached Thursday evening.

A rock star on a high-end Italian motorcycle gets rear-ended, and Middleboro becomes the momentary center of the media universe.
Police scrambled to field phone calls Thursday afternoon, after word spread that Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry had been sent to the hospital after a fender-bender at the intersection of routes 44 and 105.
The phone rang off the hook at the police station, and at least one Boston TV station sent a news helicopter to survey the scene.
“It’s pretty crazy in here, just for a minor motor vehicle accident,” Middleboro officer Bradley Savage said.
But that minor accident becomes a big media story when one of the drivers is among the region’s most famous residents, a guitar god whose low-slung Les Paul and raucous, bluesy style helped define the ‘70s arena-rock look and sound.
Middleboro police said Perry was eastbound on a 2009 Ducati motorcycle about 2:30 p.m. when he stopped at a set of lights at the intersection. The light turned green, Perry accelerated and was rear-ended by a 2001 Chevy Malibu, police said.
He was taken by ambulance to Morton Hospital and Medical Center in Taunton, authorities said. A hospital spokeswoman said Perry was treated and released.
The driver of that car, 62-year-old Linda O’Brien of Middleboro, was cited for following a vehicle too closely.
Police said a family member collected Perry’s motorcycle after the crash.  He was wearing a helmet, police said.
The crossing at routes 44  and 105 is a dangerous one for  motor vehicles, a police officer said.
From 2006 to 2008, one person was killed and 37 others were injured in 74 separate crashes at that intersection, according to the most recent data from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.
The sound of the crash could be heard from yards away, according to an officer who was working a roadside detail at a nearby intersection and responded to the scene.
While Perry was not seriously injured, it’s unknown whether Thursday’s accident will affect Aerosmith’s Aug. 14 performance with the J. Geils Band at Fenway Park.
The guitarist, 59, has suffered from nagging knee pain since falling offstage in Dallas in the late 1980s. He had a total knee replacement in late 2008.
A spokesman for Live Nation, the promoter of the concert, could not be reached Thursday evening.



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