OAKLAND TWP — A man riding a motorcycle hit a guard rail around 1:30 p.m. Friday on Chicora Road.

State police said the man sustained serious and life-threatening injuries requiring an East Butler Ambulance to rush him to a nearby hospital. A medical helicopter was called to the scene, but was unable to land.

Maddon McMillen, an employee of O'Donnell's Distributors, said he and his coworker heard a loud smacking sound, which drew them outside. McMillen watched a riderless blue motorcycle traveling west along the road, before it entered a neighboring yard. The motorcycle came to rest in the bushes along the side of a home at 732 Chicora Road.

“I went to see if the motorcycle went into the house,” McMillen said. “I don't know that it ever touched the house. It just fell over in the bushes.”

Another distributor employee, Bradon Bastian, said he went to the rider who was laying near the guardrail just east of the car wash, which shares a lot with the distributor.

Bastian helped to direct traffic while a driver who had been following the motorcycle called the crash into emergency services.

Oneida Valley Volunteer Fire Department assisted at the scene. The road was reopened at 4:40 p.m.