An 18-year-old Clinton man received minor injuries when his motorcycle went off the road Friday night and over an embankment while fleeing the Washington State Patrol near Sunlight Beach.

Trooper Dave Martin said Nathan Sarver was traveling south in front of him along Bayview Road at a high rate of speed shortly after 10 p.m. when his Kawasaki 500 went over the embankment just before Bayview Road turns into Ewing Road.

Martin said the motorcycle tumbled down the embankment, hit a tree stump and flipped over, sustaining substantial damage.

Sarver couldn’t be found at the scene, despite a 90-minute search with night-vision goggles by Martin, Island County Fire District 3 emergency personnel and Island County Sheriff’s deputies, the trooper said.

However, Sarver’s brother, sister and girlfriend arrived at the scene shortly after the incident and identified the motorcycle as his, Martin said.

He said Sarver eventually turned up at home, and was taken to Whidbey General Hospital by family members, where he was interviewed by another State Patrol trooper and admitted he was riding the motorcycle when it crashed.

Sarver, who was wearing a helmet at the time of the incident, sustained minor head and shoulder abrasions, Martin said.