FORKS – A 15-year-old Forks area boy is in the hospital with critical injuries after he apparently struck a deer while riding his motorcycle Saturday evening.

Chief criminal deputy Brian King with the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office says deputies were dispatched to a logging road near Bogachiel Way just before 10:00 pm. He says when the boy didn’t return from his ride, his father when out looking for him.

“The rider was traveling at a high rate of speed. He was ejected from the motorcycle. There was evidence there that there was a deer there that he had struck, there was an injured deer nearby.”

The boy was unresponsive with apparent head injuries when his father found him. King says the boy’s helmet came off in the accident and was found nearby. He was transported by ambulance to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.