Volunteer Fire Chief Killed in Motorcycle Crash at I-10 Exit in Alabama

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) -- William Alonzo Messer Sr., a volunteer fire department chief, died in a motorcycle crash at an Interstate 10 exit in Mobile.

Messer, 58, of Theodore was westbound when he took the Dauphin Island Parkway exit, struck a guard rail about 11:20 p.m. Friday and landed on an embankment, said Mobile Police spokesman Officer Eric Gallichant.

The Fowl River Volunteer Fire Department chief was riding a 2002 Harley Electra Glide.

Brenda Messer, his wife of 37 years, said her husband has lost about seven motorcyclist friends to fatal accidents in recent years.

''I kept telling him, 'The good Lord's trying to tell you to get off that bike.' But he said, 'That's how I'd want to go,''' she said.

Information from: The Mobile Register