 Hilary McNamee waves to a friend as she departs for a fundraiser in Ottawa, Monday, Aug 17, 2009. McNamee is one of five cyclist seriously injured when a van with collided with the group as they pedaled on a cycle path in the west of Ottawa. One cyclist remains in the hospital in serious condition. (Sun Media/Andre Forget)
|
OTTAWA -- A month ago she was an endurance cyclist, a strong young athlete out for a ride with four friends on a beautiful summer day in Kanata.
Hilary McNamee and her friends were doing everything right — wearing proper protective gear and riding single file in the designated March Rd. bicycle lane — when a van plowed them down just before 8 a.m. on July 19, seriously injuring all of them.
The crash broke McNamee’s nose, hip, femur, two vertebrae and injured her head, kidneys and lungs.
The 27-year-old Carleton social work student is now wearing a back brace and using a wheelchair and her grandmother’s walker to get around. Her scars are already fading, but her bright smile isn’t.
She sits, posture perfect, dressed in a silk halter blouse, explaining she hasn’t thought much of the driver who left the scene, choosing to focus on positive thoughts to speed her recovery.
The accused, Sommit Luangpakham, 45, is free on bail. He’s charged with five counts of failing to stop at the scene of a collision causing bodily harm.
She’s happy the accident got so much attention — even from Lance Armstrong, who dedicated one of his video blog entries during the Tour de France to the victims — because she wants drivers to wake up.
“When you’re driving you’re meant to be driving — not talking on your cell or reaching for something on the ground ... you can cause damage,” she says.
She’s happy the cuts on her face have healed and is optimistic because doctors have told her she won’t have to wear the brace as long as initially thought.
Luckily, she remembers little about that morning.
The group had started from Cathy Anderson’s house, and were making good time.
Moments before the accident, she thought to herself what a perfect day it was, and what a good pace they were keeping. The next thing she remembers is waking up in hospital, hooked up to a lot of machines, the familiar faces of her family hovering above her.
“I really don’t have much memory ... I think it’s a good thing.
“My friends and family had to go through the whole thing, getting the call, I just woke up and had to mend from that point on,” she says.
Her parents, Ken and Nancy McNamee, were at their Perth home when they got the call that makes every parent’s blood run cold. Nancy cried and Ken sped all the way to Ottawa.
The couple said yesterday they’re “blessed” that Hilary’s made such an incredible recovery.
“We don’t even want to think of the alternative, seeing her like this is amazing,” Nancy McNamee explains.
The accident has brought the friends — Anderson, Mark White, Robert Harland and Robert Wein, who suffered the most severe injuries — closer together.
“The five of us are fighters, we’re really determined people,” McNamee says.
“Now, seeing even more strength and perseverance and determination from them, I am inspired that I am lucky enough to have friends like this.
“We’re all going to be together again, riding, in the future,” she says. “I want to get out as soon as I can.”
When?
“When’s the Tour de France?” she asks, throwing her head back in laughter. A more realistic goal, she says, is next summer’s Rideau Lakes Tour, to Kingston and back.
