By COREY SAATHOFF

Editor

A man died as a result of serious injuries sustained in a late Saturday morning crash in Columbia.

Emergency personnel responded shortly before 11:25 a.m. to a collision between a motorcycle and car on Route 3 at North Main Street in Columbia.

The motorcyclist died in the crash, which resulted in traffic on northbound Route 3 closed into the early afternoon. That portion of roadway was fully reopened to traffic shortly before 3 p.m.

Responding agencies included the Columbia police, fire and EMS departments.

Columbia police said an initial investigation indicates a Harley-Davidson motorcycle driven by James N. Nix, 73, of Caseyville, was traveling south on Route 3 and attempted to turn left onto North Main Street on a flashing yellow arrow light when it was struck by a 2003 Oldsmobile sedan driven by 21-year-old Quinton Jackson-Moore of Waterloo, which had a green light while traveling north on Route 3.

The motorcyclist was rushed by ambulance to Mercy Hospital South in St. Louis County, where police initially said he was in “critical but stable” condition on Saturday afternoon. 

Police provided an update on Sunday that the motorcyclist had died at the hospital. He was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash.

Neither the driver nor a 21-year-old female passenger in the car required medical transport from the scene but did seek treatment later for minor injuries.

“His heart hurts for the guy,” the car driver’s mother, Summer Jackson, said of her son following news of the motorcyclist’s death.