Update: Motorcyclist in Fatal Woodbury Crash Identified

The 30-year-old Madison Lake motorcyclist who crashed into a grove of trees in Woodbury this morning while allegedly fleeing a Minnesota State Patrol trooper died this afternoon at Regions Hospital in St. Paul.

Robert Dennis Davis was transported to Regions Hospital shortly after 8 a.m., when his 1993 Honda motorcycle went off the road into a group of trees on Valley Creek Road near Century Avenue, according to Lt. Eric Roeske, a spokesperson for the Minnesota State Patrol.

Davis was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash, Roeske said.

According to the report, the state patrol responded to several complaints of a man, later identified as Davis, speeding, driving recklessly and passing drivers while riding a motorcycle on northbound Highway 61 on the shoulder just before 8 a.m. 

A Minnesota State Patrol trooper saw the motorcycle near Lower Afton Road and attempted to make a traffic stop, but Davis allegedly sped off. A few minutes later, the trooper happened upon the scene of the crash.

"I can tell you he was so far ahead of the trooper that the trooper didn't even see him go off the road," Roeske told the Pioneer Press.

The trooper was not involved in a high-speed pursuit with Davis, Roeske reiterated, but Davis was fleeing the trooper at the time of the crash.

The crash remains under investigation.