A 78-year-old motorcyclist riding along the 1600 block of SW Old Clifton Road, between Lieseke Lane SW and SW Berry Lake Road, on Aug. 16 failed to negotiate a curve in the roadway and was ejected into an adjacent drainage ditch.

Kitsap County Sheriff’s deputies and crews from South Kitsap Fire and Rescue arrived shortly after receiving a call at 3:07 p.m., but their efforts to revive the man were unsuccessful.

The motorcyclist, Ernest Gilbert Mejia of South Kitsap, was pronounced dead at the scene, outside the Port Orchard city limits, sheriff’s office spokesman Scott Wilson said. The motorcycle was found on its side in the roadway with significant damage.

Wilson said it’s not known if Mejia was impaired or was experiencing a medical emergency at the time of the crash. He said the county’s forensic pathologist will conduct an autopsy and the Kitsap County Coroner will determine the cause and manner of the man’s death.

Sheriff’s deputies determined that the 2007 Kawasaki motorcycle was traveling westbound on Old Clifton Road when the driver failed to negotiate a curve to the left. Mejia lost control of the motorcycle, which then careened off the pavement onto the roadway shoulder and up onto the embankment, where it continued its momentum until tumbling, sending the driver into the ditch.

Anyone with information about the crash is asked to contact Deputy Steve Martin, sheriff’s traffic unit, at 360-337-4634.