Whitehorse RCMP looking for witnesses after Para cyclist injured in highway collision

RCMP in Whitehorse are looking for any witnesses to a collision on the Alaska Highway late Saturday evening that left a Para cyclist seriously injured.

Darryl Tait, a well-known local athlete and accessibility advocate, was training for the upcoming Canada Summer Games on his hand-cycle when the collision happened. He told CBC News that he was riding southbound on the highway when he was hit from behind by a passing vehicle.

"I'm in stable condition right now. Right now, my left arm is paralyzed and I can't use it, and I have a couple of broken ribs, and broken L2 vertebrae," he said on Monday afternoon, from the hospital in Whitehorse.

"I'm in pretty good shape considering what just happened."

The incident happened just before 10 p.m. on Saturday, near the Philmar RV Centre. Tait said he had started his training ride late that day because of the strong winds earlier in the day.

He said he was riding along the highway when he started to get a bad feeling. 

"I started to feel like, this kind of feels off, like, this is a little sketchy ... Like, I'm super low to the ground with these cars going by, and I'm on the shoulder," he recalled.

He figures he travelled about another 50 metres or so when he was suddenly "smoked" from behind.

"I just had this big thud from behind, and I blacked out for a moment. I couldn't hear anything, I couldn't see anything."

The next thing he remembers is skidding down the road as a vehicle drove off down the highway. He says he didn't see any brake lights from the vehicle as he slid sideways off the road and toward the ditch.

Lying on the ground, unable to move one of his arms, Tait tried to call 911 but his earbuds had been knocked out and his phone wasn't responding. He used his one working arm to flag down some passing motorists who stopped and called for help.

He said RCMP and an ambulance arrived quickly and he was taken to the Whitehorse hospital.

Speaking on Monday, Tait said his one arm was still not working properly. He'd had an MRI earlier and was still waiting to hear whether his arm could be repaired.

"I can wiggle my fingers and I can like, shrug my shoulder, but I don't have any flexion or extension in my bicep. I can kind of move my wrist a little bit. But initially ... there was no movement at all," he said.

"I will try to get this arm back or I'll be spinning doughnuts in my manual chair, for sure."

In 2009, Tait was involved in a snowmobile crash that left him paralyzed from the chest down. He was displaying snowmobile jumps at an event in the U.S. when a backflip went awry and the machine landed on him. He suffered severe injuries including a severed spinal cord. He was close to death.

After that accident, Tait vowed to remain active and became an accomplished para-athlete and an outspoken advocate for people with disabilities or mobility challenges. 

Speaking on Monday, he said the weekend collision was "definitely scary," but that he was drawing on the support of many people to help him get through. 

"I'm alive, I'm here with my family," he said, his voice breaking with emotion. "You know, I got a lot of things that are going for me, the friends and family and community support — that keeps me strong," he said.

Whitehorse RCMP are asking for anybody who may have witnessed the collision, or has dash-cam footage, to contact them at 667-5555.  

Sgt. Brent Edwards, speaking to CBC News on Tuesday, said police are not treating the incident as a hit-and-run, though he did not say whether police had identified the driver.

Cycling safety on the highway

The incident involving Tait happened just days before a group of Whitehorse residents will hold a memorial bike ride to mark the anniversary of a hit-and-run collision involving a cyclist on the Alaska Highway.

Joe Morrison was riding his bike to work along the highway in June 2024 when he was struck by a vehicle and killed. The driver fled the scene and a couple of weeks later police arrested and charged a man with driving while prohibited, dangerous driving causing death, and failing to remain at the scene of a collision that caused death.

Steven Biss, president of the Cycling Association of Yukon, said there's still a long way to go when it comes to making the roads safer for cyclists.

"Especially if you are choosing or need to commute along the highway — there's really no protection for you as a cyclist," Biss said, on Tuesday morning. 

"I don't think drivers realize how dangerous and how scary it can be, to have someone drive a foot away from you, going 60, 70 kilometres an hour."

Jane Koepke, the association's vice-president, said she would like to see the paved, separated trail that runs alongside parts of the Alaska Highway expanded through more of the city. Some cyclists, who are either commuting to work or training for events, have little choice but to use the highway, she said. 

"Bike-vehicle separation is generally the, you know, in the simplest terms, the standard that many communities are trying to reach," she said. 

She said collisions, like the one that killed Morrison last year and the one that injured Tait last weekend, put a lot of people on edge. 

"It definitely impacts people in their sense of safety, and [their] willingness to go out and partake in active commuting and/or, you know, road cycling training," she said.