2 days ago
Whitehorse RCMP looking for witnesses after Para cyclist injured in highway collision
RCMP in Whitehorse are looking for any witnesses to an apparent hit-and-run collision on the Alaska Highway late Saturday evening that left a Para cyclist seriously injured.
Darryl Tait, a well-known local athlete and accessibility advocate, was training for the upcoming Canada Summer Games on his hand-cycle when the collision happened. He told CBC News that he was riding southbound on the highway when he was hit from behind by a passing vehicle.
"I'm in stable condition right now. Right now, my left arm is paralyzed and I can't use it, and I have a couple of broken ribs, and broken L2 vertebrae," he said on Monday afternoon, from the hospital in Whitehorse.
"I'm in pretty good shape considering what just happened."
The incident happened just before 10 p.m. on Saturday, near the Philmar RV Centre. Tait said he had started his training ride late that day because of the strong winds earlier in the day.
He said he was riding along the highway when he started to get a bad feeling.
"I started to feel like, this kind of feels off, like, this is a little sketchy ... Like, I'm super low to the ground with these cars going by, and I'm on the shoulder," he recalled.
He figures he travelled about another 50 metres or so when he was suddenly "smoked" from behind.
"I just had this big thud from behind, and I blacked out for a moment. I couldn't hear anything, I couldn't see anything."
The next thing he remembers is skidding down the road as a vehicle drove off down the highway. He says he didn't see any brake lights from the vehicle as he slid sideways off the road and toward the ditch.
Lying on the ground, unable to move one of his arms, Tait tried to call 911 but his earbuds had been knocked out and his phone wasn't responding. He used his one working arm to flag down some passing motorists who stopped and called for help.
He said RCMP and an ambulance arrived quickly and he was taken to the Whitehorse hospital.
Speaking on Monday, Tait said his one arm was still not working properly. He'd had an MRI earlier and was still waiting to hear whether his arm could be repaired.
"I can wiggle my fingers and I can like, shrug my shoulder, but I don't have any flexion or extension in my bicep. I can kind of move my wrist a little bit. But initially ... there was no movement at all," he said.
"I will try to get this arm back or I'll be spinning doughnuts in my manual chair, for sure."
In 2009, Tait was involved in a snowmobile crash that left him paralyzed from the chest down. He was displaying snowmobile jumps at an event in the U.S. when a backflip went awry and the machine landed on him. He suffered severe injuries including a severed spinal cord. He was close to death.
After that accident, Tait vowed to remain active and became an accomplished para-athlete and an outspoken advocate for people with disabilities or mobility challenges.
Speaking on Monday, he said the weekend collision was "definitely scary," but that he was drawing on the support of many people to help him get through.
"I'm alive, I'm here with my family," he said, his voice breaking with emotion. "You know, I got a lot of things that are going for me, the friends and family and community support — that keeps me strong," he said.
