ROCKWELL — Patrick John Gainey would have been 29 in about two weeks, his mother, Donna Morton, said Wednesday.

The Kannapolis man was killed Tuesday night in what troopers with the N.C. Highway Patrol said appears to have been a single-vehicle accident.

Gainey, 28, was traveling east on N.C. 152, west of Rockwell, about 11 p.m. He crossed left of center and ran off the road to the left, colliding with several wooden posts and a garbage can.

Morton said her son’s birthday is March 21. He had just gotten the motorcycle.

She learned of his death Wednesday after two state troopers came to her door.

“I knew right then that something happened to him,” she said about the troopers arriving at her house.

Gainey attended A.L. Brown High School and was a mechanic, his mom said.

Morton said she was overcome with emotion and that it was tough to talk about the accident.

The Highway Patrol is investigating the accident.