The vehicle just didn’t stop. Jack and Rosemarie Taylor have gone over and over the crash that broke their bones, sent them into surgery after surgery, forced them into therapy for months and destroyed the motorcycle they were riding.
They still don’t understand how they were hit by another vehicle, causing so much pain and suffering, and still the driver has not been held responsible.
The collision occurred on Oct. 4, 2009. It was a hit and run incident near Church Road on Highway 4A, near the Co-Op gas bar. Jack and Rosemarie were riding their motorcycle at around 7:50 p.m. that night.
“We were riding along the Alberni Highway near Church Road, remembers Rosemarie. “It turned out to be our last ride.”
A small story in The News at the time states that a blue, 1984 Chevrolet Cavalier struck the motorcycle and its passengers, then fled the scene before police could arrive. The car bore a license plate with the number 131 RBB, and the police were looking for its driver.
The Taylors, very seriously injured in the crash, were rushed to hospital to treat their many injuries. Jack suffered a shattered leg — as did Rosemarie, but she was very close to losing a leg altogether.
“They almost took my leg,” she said, adding she was told later that the crash had almost servered it from her body.
Her leg, however, was saved, but it has taken eight surgeries to do so. Put many sessions of physiotherapy on top of that and only recently has she been able to get around on it.
Jack’s leg was put back together, but after returning to work hauling logs after two years away, he suffered a setback and is back in physiotherapy again, and on a disability claim.
“To haul logs for a living, you have to be able to walk, at least,” he said.
Without work, the couple had to rely on insurance money, family and their savings to get to and from Vancouver for their operations and procedures. They say they have been treated well by their insurance company, doctors and other professionals along the way.
Even the police, who have yet to catch the person responsible, received praise from the Taylors.
“It’s still an open case,” Rosemarie said. “The police have an idea who it was (who was driving the blue car), but they’ve about done all they can.”
Witnesses at the scene got the license plate number and a video camera saw it — as well as the outline of three passengers in the vehicle.
But, no witness nor the camera saw who was driving at the time.
While the car — owned by a mid-Island resident — was found and impounded by police following the incident, Rosemarie said the police cannot charge anyone since they don’t know which of the three people in the car was the driver.
“We just want to put that out there,” said Rosemarie, “a hit and run and no one has claimed responsibility for it.”
The Taylors say they aren’t seeking revenge, but they would like whoever was driving that night to take responsibility for the crash.
“We’re both stronger people, having gone through this experience,” Rosemarie said.
As for a possible return to motorcycling, the couple say they don’t really plan on it.
“You just don’t want to take the chance,” Jack said.
