A Pennsylvania motorcyclist apparently suffered a heart attack Wednesday evening before an accident on Littlestown Pike north of Westminster, state police said.

Lenny Duane Doan, 37, of Abbottstown in York County was taken to Carroll County General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead soon after the accident, which occurred at 5: 30 p.m., police said.

According to a police report, the motorcyclist was traveling north near Bachmans Valley Road when he put his head down on the handlebars of his Yamaha Special 400 and began to lose control of the motorcycle.

A passenger, Mark D. Green, 20, of Hanover, Pa., reached around the driver, grabbed the handlebars and steered out of traffic into a grassy area, where the Yamaha slid to a stop on its left side, police said.

Green suffered minor injuries and declined medical treatment, police said.

Doan showed no signs of trauma from the accident and had been under a doctor's care for a heart-related condition, police said.