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Thought I'd pass this on.


Biker healing after devastating crash

By Emiley Morgan

Deseret News
Published: Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009 11:18 p.m. MDT

Dave Collins doesn't remember what happened to him that Saturday morning in August. He's tried to make sense of it using facts and stories from those who remember what he can't.

He knows he was in a race.

He knows he didn't finish.

He knows he's lucky to be alive.

"That's a period of time that's completely lost to me," Collins said. "I remember nothing of the race or anything after. I've just been getting pieces."

Collins, 48, has a face that "almost looks exactly the same" but is now lined with titanium. He has some fractured vertebrae in his back, but he has no "painful, terrible memories" following an accident involving a Ford Explorer that stopped abruptly in front of his five-man cycling team to avoid another vehicle.

He and his team, made up of friends and co-workers from his home in Mesa, Ariz., were competing in a 1000 Warriors race in American Fork Canyon on Aug. 22 when a Suburban veered across a double yellow line to avoid a cyclist and into the path of the Explorer. Collins was one of two riders who collided with the rear of the Ford Explorer when it stopped to avoid the Suburban.

"It broke, literally, every bone in my face," he said. "There was a lot of reconstruction, a lot of titanium plates, it broke my jaw. That was the worst."

Collins was in the Intensive Care Unit at University Hospital for 18 days after the wreck. He said he lost 35 pounds. Gaining those back has been one of his biggest struggles. That, and patience. He's eager to get back on a bike, having been spared the memories of what happened the last time he was riding.

"If the healing keeps going as it has been, and if I'm patient enough, it will happen someday, but the patience has been really tough, to just sit back and wait. … I am healing pretty well, just not fast enough for me," Collins said.

Collins discovered that biking was a passion of his only in the last four or five years, but it was something he said he took seriously and for which he trained long and hard. He said he competed in four or five races last summer, planned on three or four more this summer and put in "thousands and thousands of training miles."

Before this accident, he'd never even had road rash. He said he's a "decent rider" who pays attention and that had always kept him safe. And he knew the area well. Born and raised in Provo, with a bachelor's and master's from BYU, he came back to ride the trail three times in preparation for the event.

But whenever he looked back on the accident, as he searched for some sort of explanation, he said he couldn't help but wonder if he could have done something differently. He knew he was the lead rider and that it would have fallen on him to direct the team and, in this instance, avert disaster. His fellow riders assured him it happened too fast for him to avoid.

In addition to helping him understand what happened that day, the other riders have been visiting, offering support and encouragement. He said he heard from the driver of the vehicle, who wrote to apologize and "express their sorrow." His wife has been "unbelievable," helping to find foods he can eat and reminding him to take his medications.

But more than anything, it's the combined efforts and the good will sent from people he doesn't even know that have helped him to heal. He was audibly moved as he spoke about the power of support and prayer in his recovery process.

"I've been told by many, many people and many I don't even know that, well, saying that they've been thinking about me and praying for me in their family prayers and things like that," he said. "And I feel like that support and caring and all those thoughts have really made all the difference."

e-mail: emorgan@desnews.com
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