Cochrane’s Kyle Peters said he’s lucky to be alive after being hit by an impaired driver on his way home on Dec. 7.
A man in his 40s from the rural-Cochrane area was arrested for Impaired Driving after the truck he was driving collided with a passenger car westbound on Highway 1A at Horse Creek Road on Dec. 7, according to Cochrane RCMP Spokesman Constable Greg Stannard.
“It happened about 6:15 p.m. on Dec. 7,” Stannard said. “A Dodge truck rear-ended a Pontiac Sunfire and the driver of the truck was arrested for Impaired Driving. Charges are pending.”
According to Stannard, the man had a blood alcohol level of nearly double the legal limit. Under Alberta’s Impaired Driving Laws, drivers who have a blood alcohol level greater than .08 face criminal charges and an immediate suspension of their license until the criminal charge is resolved.
Peters, 24, was on his way home when he was rear-ended.
“I was at the intersection with Highway 1A and Horse Creek Road, and I was in a left turn lane with my signal light on,” Peters said. “I checked my rearview mirror because something just didn’t feel right and I saw a pair of headlights growing farther apart from each other, very, very quickly. I knew right away he wasn’t going to stop so I looked forward and pressed the gas pedal. It wasn’t even a blink of an eye later, he ran into the back of my car.”
According to Peters, there are no traffic lights at that intersection.
Peters said his driver’s seat snapped back, leaving him staring at the ceiling of his car. He tried to sit up to look for oncoming traffic but said he could only see red lights as his vehicle spun around multiple times.
After the vehicle came to rest and after checking all his fingers and toes to make sure he could still feel everything and his neck to ensure “nothing was poking out,”
Peters said he crawled out of the vehicle through his driver’s side window with the help of passersby who rushed to help him.
“The witnesses were already saying that it wasn’t my fault and the ambulance crews arrived pretty much right away,” he said. “It wasn’t even two minutes.”
According to EMS Spokesman Stuart Brideaux, “Two units from Cochrane EMS did attend and everyone declined EMS assistance or assessment and there were no patients transported from that collision.”
“I was in shock and I refused,” Peters said.
“I was brought home by my mom to get some food into me, because I hadn’t eaten,” he said. “We went to the RCMP to give my report and then straight to urgent care. By the time I got there, that’s when everything started to hurt. They confirmed that I had pretty serious whip lash and there was a lot of pain in my chest and my arms were tingling so they ambulanced me off to the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary.”
Peters said the medical team at Foothills checked him over by doing X-rays, a CT-scan and ultrasound, finally determining he didn’t have any serious injuries.
“Despite the fact I didn’t have any serious injuries that needed me to be in the hospital, I’ve still been going through a lot of pain,” Peters said. “I’ve lost almost all grip in my hands so it’s making it very difficult to do normal things.”
Peters said doctors told him he should recover full use of his hands. He currently works at the Sobey’s Liquor Store in Cochrane but has had to take a few days off work to recover.
Peters said he credits the quick thinking of an oncoming driver with saving his life.
“He told me he saw the accident was going to happen and (the people in his vehicle) actually slowed down traffic,” Peters said. “There was a long line of cars coming over the hill that would have been in the way of the collision so they would have hit me and it would have caused a pile-up. The fact they slowed traffic, they saved my life.”
The collision came just as the RCMP’s National Impaired Driving Enforcement Campaign kicked off across Canada.
“On Dec. 5 we did some (enforcement) specific to that,” Stannard said. “I don’t have any results at this point. We’re always vigilant for impaired drivers and hopefully the public is as well. Because there’s more celebrating this time of year, we’ll be out.”
Peters said the aftermath of the collision continues to haunt him.
“Every time I drive up to that intersection now, my heart starts racing and I get very, very nervous,” he said. “I don’t like coming home for that reason.”
