BEVERLY — A Beverly pastor who set out on a cross-country motorcycle trip the day after he retired was seriously injured in a crash in Arizona on Tuesday.
Mark Coleman broke four ribs and punctured a lung when he drove his Honda Gold Wing motorcycle off a road in a remote area in Ganato, Ariz., near the New Mexico border.
"I'm doing fair," he said yesterday from his bed at Banner Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix. "I figure I'll be pretty well put together in a couple of days."
Coleman, 67, retired May 31 after 20 years as pastor at North Shore Community Baptist Church in Beverly Farms. The next day, he left on a cross-country motorcycle trip to raise money and awareness for Peace and Hope Trust, a nonprofit organization run by his son Peter that helps poor people in Nicaragua.
Coleman had traveled about 6,200 miles of his planned 9,000-mile trip when the accident occurred in northeast Arizona.
Coleman said he had set his motorcycle on cruise control while riding a 10-mile stretch of road that was "straight as an arrow." He said he was traveling about 65 mph on a road with a 75 mph speed limit.
As he approached a curve in the road, he reached over to turn off the cruise control.
"I should have just touched the brakes," he said. "When I looked up, I had already faded off the edge of the road. For a moment, I thought maybe I could ride it out, but I hit some kind of a rut."
As Coleman lay on the side of the road in pain and struggling to breathe, he raised his hand to signal a passing motorist, who called 911. Coleman said it took 30 to 40 minutes for the ambulance to arrive. Three or four other motorists also stopped to help.
"People were very kind," he said.
Coleman was taken to Chinle Hospital in Chinle, Ariz., then by medical helicopter to Banner Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix. He was visited in the hospital by his brother and two nephews, who live in Arizona. His wife, Sybil, flew out yesterday to see him. The motorist who had first stopped to help him called the hospital to check on him.
Coleman said he will be coming home to Beverly today or tomorrow.
Aside from the painful ending, Coleman said he had a great trip.
"Up to that moment I had absolutely no complaints," he said. "It was wonderful."
Staff writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2675 or pleighton@salemnews.com.
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