Motorcycle Crash Claims Two Lives, Including 25-Year Old Rocky Mount Man

BOONES MILL – Virginia State Police Senior Trooper A.J Berry is investigating a motorcycle crash which resulted in two fatalities. The crash occurred Sunday (Sept 1) at 10:35 p.m. on Route 739, two tenths of a mile east of Route 986 in Franklin County.

A 2007 Kawasaki Ninja was traveling east on Route 739, when the motorcycle ran off the right side of the roadway, down an embankment into a ditch; and caught fire.

The driver of the Kawasaki, Jesse Mackinley Stapleton, 25, of Rocky Mount (pictured), was wearing his helmet and died at the scene. The passenger Rodney Calvin Craighead, Jr., 19, of Lynchburg, VA was not wearing his helmet and also died at the scene.

The crash remains under investigation.