Complaints by many area residents that South Fulton Parkway has become a local substitute for the Autobahn seemed to hold true early Monday morning when a Newnan man fleeing Georgia State Patrol (GSP) on a motorcycle was killed near Hunter Road. He was clocked earlier traveling 137 miles per hour.

Twenty-nine year-old Freeman Salahuddin died at the scene after his motorcycle slammed into the rear of a Union City patrol car, veered off the roadway and struck a tree, said Union City Police spokesman Sgt. George Louth.

A short time earlier, Salahuddin and another cyclist had been pursued by GSP units in the Old National Highway area as a part of a regional crackdown on high-speed motorcycle travel, Louth said. The chase led to South Fulton Parkway, where the motorcycles were headed west in the Cedar Grove Road area. Union City also had units on the parkway, said Louth. At one point during the pursuit the motorcycle driven by Salahuddin was clocked on radar at 137 miles per hour, Louth said.

The GSP units lost contact with the motorcycles and turned around, heading east on the parkway when they were quickly passed by one of the cycles inside Union City city limits. One of the Union city patrol units, parked along the roadway at Hunter Road was struck in the rear by Salahuddin as he sped through the city, said Louth. Salahuddin’s motorcycle then veered off the roadway into the tree line a struck a tree, Louth said. Salahuddin died at the scene, he said. Salahuddin’s rate of speed upon impact with the patrol car was unknown, Louth said.

Salahuddin had a previous conviction for armed robbery.

Statistics from Georgia State Patrol show that 31 percent of motorcyclists involved in fatal crashes were speeding, 25 percent of motorcycle operators involved in fatal crashes are driving with an expired license, motorcycle riders are four times more likely to be intoxicated when killed in traffic crashes at night and motorcyclists in fatal crashes have higher intoxication rates than any other type of driver, said Governor’s Office of Highway Safety representative Jim Shuler.