My wife Suzanne, a very good friend Alan Baldwin, and I were on our mountain bikes and were heading south to take a ride to Callaghan Lake. As we approached the top of Power Line Hill, we were directed onto the main highway, which had been torn up in preparation for new asphalt.
We were following a dump truck down the hill and then we were directed back into the original paved roadway. I was leading our team and could see the abutment or transition back to the original roadway was approximately a three-to-four-inch (eight-to-10 cm) curb.
I approached the curb at a 70- to 80-per-cent angle and my bike easily handled the transition. Behind me, I could hear my wife Suzanne slamming to the ground. I quickly looked around and saw Alan approaching from the same angle and take a disastrous fall.
Both riders had come into the transition pavement at a parallel angle, which caused both bikes to crash. Suzanne fortunately only suffered a mild concussion, road rash, bruising and a very sore shoulder.
Alan wasn’t so lucky. Alan was motionless on the roadway and was in obvious pain. He ended up fracturing his pelvis in two places, three ribs and his clavicle and has a bad concussion.
He is still in Vancouver General Hospital and will require a stay at UBC for rehab for a couple of weeks; he will also be wheelchair bound for a month.
We wanted to acknowledge what a great job that the paving team did when this accident occurred. The truck driver, Owen Sculley, jumped into action. He immediately asked if he had caused the incident and I assured him it was biker error.
He immediately tended to Alan, carefully removed his helmet, used my jacket as a pillow and insisted that he not be moved. He got on the phone and called for the ambulance.
The flagging crew redirected and altered the traffic flow to prioritize the ambulance coming from Whistler. The ambulance crew were excellent and more or less diagnosed Alan’s condition with great accuracy.
This Whistler Health Care Centre was also excellent and made things happen to get Alan the care he needed. We would also like to thank Alex Relf, co-owner of Peaked Pies, who transported the bikes back to Whistler.
We do have our local heroes who should be commended for doing a job well done and helping in a tough situation.
Robert Wheeler // Whistler
