A motorcyclist from rural Garretson was still unconscious Monday morning with injuries suffered in a motorcycle crash over the noon hour on Sunday.

Captain Jim Hoekman of the Minnehaha County Sheriff's Office says the 22-year-old man was eastbound on 254th Street and approaching 477th Avenue around 12:30pm when he crashed, about two miles east of Midway Corner.

Hoekman says witnesses told authorities the cyclist was following a pickup when he pulled out and passed the vehicle at a normal passing speed.

The people in the pickup lost sight of the motorcyclist as he crested a hill, but when they came over the hill they saw him in the roadway.

The cyclist, who had been thrown from the cycle, was unconscious when he was airlifted to a Sioux Falls hospital, where he was in stable condition Monday morning, although he was still unconscious.

Hoekman says the cause of the crash still isn't known, since no one saw it happen, but he says the motorcyclist's helmet likely kept his injuries from becoming more serious.

He says the man was not driving recklessly and was passing the slower vehicle in a safe manner when he crashed.

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