Two motorcycle crashes last week in Butler County left one man dead and another in critical condition.
Steve “Dewey” Ruth, 61, was found dead last Thursday afternoon in a wooded area off Ohio 27 in Ross Twp. after what investigators believe was a motorcycle crash on Tuesday night.
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Ruth was found several hundred feet off the road into the woods near Herman Road.
Dave Rader, director of Texas Equusearch Midwest, a non-profit organization that has helped in thousand of searches, was traveling to Hueston Woods on last Thursday to continue the search another man who went missing four weeks ago when a member posted information about Ruth and asked it be shared.
He and other members of Equusearch knew Ruth. Rader said he received information that Ruth was last seen at Joey’s Bar on Burlington Road in Springfield Twp. and was heading to the Oxford area and may have travelled on Ohio 27.
Rader said it looked like Ruth didn’t turn and continued straight.
“I don’t think he suffered. He loved his bike, and he road it to the end,” Rader said.
Ross Police Capt. Patrick Carr said there was no missing report filed for Ruth. But friends started to get worried about him when he wasn’t seen at usual places and started looking for him.
Following an autopsy Friday, the Butler County Sheriff’s Office said Ruth died of multiple traumatic injuries, and his death was ruled an accident, according to information released on Monday by the coroner’s office.
Last Thursday night, Douglas Best, 54, of Middletown, was riding his Harley Davidson when he crashed into a guardrail on Carmody Boulevard, officials said.
Best was flown by CareFlight to Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton. He remains in critical condition this afternoon, according to a hospital official.
He allegedly was riding his 2015 Harley Davidson northbound on Carmody at “a high rate” of speed when he passed a car in a no-passing zone, then crashed into the guardrail, according to the Middletown Division of Police crash report. He wasn’t wearing a helmet, the report read.
He was charged with reasonable control and no passing zone violations, the report read.
There were 154 fatal motorcycle crashes last year in Ohio, six in Butler County and three in Warren County, according to the Ohio Highway Patrol. Last year’s fatal crashes in Butler were the most in the last five years.