By Shelley Smith
ssmith@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Friend and fellow motorcyclist Roy Surratt said Carolyn Motley was “always ready at the drop of a hat to go for a ride.”
Sunday afternoon, Motley passed by his house on her motorcycle on the way to visit friends and her son.
“Then the next thing I know, I’m getting a phone call saying she was killed in an accident,” Surratt said Monday. “I was just in shock for the rest of the night.”
Motley, 57, died from injuries sustained in the Sunday evening crash on Sherrills Ford Road. Motley crashed into a trailer being backed into a driveway. The driver of the SUV towing the trailer has been charged in her death.
William Montgomery Sr., of 156 Fairfield Road, Mocksville, is charged with misdemeanor death by vehicle and driving while license revoked. He was released after posting a $10,000 bond.
Surratt said he knew something had to be off when he heard about the crash, since Motley was raised on the back of her father’s Indian motorcycles.
And in the past two years, he and Motley had ridden around 11,000 miles together.
“She is extremely careful, we had no near-misses,” he said.
Surratt met Motley through his son and her grandson — they were good neighborhood friends growing up.
“So we kind of developed a friendship through our bikes and love for bikes,” he said. “We were just really good friends.”
Surratt said one of his most memorable times with Motley was taking their motorcycles to Pigeon Forge and riding the “Tail of the Dragon,”an 11-mile stretch in the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina with 318 curves.
“She was a very capable rider,” Surratt said. “We’ve never had a problem. It would be just so out of character for her to make a mistake on a bike.”
Surratt says he’ll not only miss riding bikes with Motley, but will miss her kindness.
The N.C. Highway Patrol had not finalized the accident report Monday.
Contact reporter Shelley Smith at 704-797-4246.