Short ride detours lives
Two members of a motorcycle club lost limbs in a July collision in Brampton But Bill McKiernon aims to drive, ski and maybe dance again, writes Jim Wilkes
Ellen Blanchette lay face down in a Brampton ditch, watching a fly casually stroll along her bloodied arm. A few metres away, Bill McKiernon was slowly bleeding to death in the same ditch, lifeblood draining from his left leg, which had been torn off above the knee.
Because the brain often protects us from pain, he has no memory of the gut- wrenching accident that left him and Blanchette in hospital, both missing part of a leg, both scarred for life from a crash that killed the car driver who caused it all. They’re members of the Southern Cruisers Riding Club, an eclectic mix of folks who hop on high- performance motorcycles to tour the byways of Canada and the United States.
It was a clear and warm evening on July 19 this year when they left a Brampton coffee shop, heading west along Mayfield Rd. to rural Erin, where they’d have a quick break, turn around and ride through Acton on the way home.
McKiernon’s a 51- year- old retired pharmaceutical executive nicknamed “ Star Cruiser” who is the Peel chapter’s first officer. Laughingly called “ Grand Poobah” by club members, he has two grown sons, has volunteered for 20 years as a scout leader and sings in local musical theatre and an Oakville barbershop quartet.
Blanchette, nicknamed “The Newf,” a 39- year- old long- distance trucker and mother of two teenaged daughters, had worked a long day and climbed on the back of McKiernon’s shiny Yamaha V Star 1100 to join about 50 bikes split into groups on their regular Tuesday jaunt into the country. They didn’t get far.
Just after 7 p. m., a speeding Monte Carlo tried to overtake them just west of Chinguacousy Rd. Ontario Provincial Police said the car had passed most of the group when an oncoming garbage truck forced the car to go off the north shoulder, where it fishtailed on gravel and rocketed back across the road and into McKiernon and Blanchette. Witnesses said the car flipped at least six times before coming to rest in a field, killing 27- year- old driver Jamie Maynard.
“ He just shot out to pass the van behind us and I guess he didn’t realize how many bikes there were,” recalled Larry Fielding, who, as “ tail gunner” on the ride, was last in line of a dozen polished motorcycles. He watched helplessly as the car slammed into McKiernon’s bike and raced up to find his buddy lying in the ditch.
“ I thought he was dead, but there was blood pumping out of his leg so I got down on my knees to put pressure on it to stop the bleeding,” said Fielding, a56- year- old electrician trained in first aid. McKiernon says the quick action probably saved his life.
“ I remember forming up the groups and leaving, but that’s the last I remember until I woke up in the hospital,” he said. “ Fortunately, we went into the ditch and the car actually went over us, or so I was told.
“ I think we’re very fortunate to be alive. My leg was ripped off at the scene. Had Larry not put that pressure on, I don’t think I’d be here to say anything today.
“ Ellen remembers everything that happened to her,” McKiernon said. “ She told me how she was lying in the ditch, face down and she saw a fly going along her arm. She had vivid memories of everything.”
Blanchette declined to be interviewed for this story on the advice of her lawyer, who is waging legal action on her behalf. Her left leg was amputated at Sunnybrook hospital, just above the knee. She was released within a week. McKiernon was airlifted from a Brampton hospital to Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital, where more of his leg was removed and surgeons worked to repair damage to his lungs.
“ It was touch and go there for a while,” he said. A month later, he was transferred to St. John’s Rehabilitation Hospital in North York, where he stayed for four weeks and where he’s returned three days a week for physiotherapy. He spends most of his time in a wheelchair, but is learning to get around on crutches more each week. The stump of his leg still hasn’t healed and he thinks it may be early January before he can be fitted for a prosthetic leg.
“I like cross-country skiing and golf and I hope to resume them,” McKiernon said. “ There will be things I won’t be able to do, but I’ll be able to do a lot of things with a lot of work.
“ I haven’t thrown out all my left shoes. I figure I’ll be using them again when I get my artificial leg,” he said. “ This is something I just can’t change. It’s not something I can just walk away from, so to speak.”
Part of his rehabilitation is relearning things he once took for granted.
“ I have a lot of support from a lot of people, but I have moments . . .” he said. “ It’s been life- altering, for sure.
“ I can’t just come and go as I want, as I used to do. Things like dropping a knife or fork — and you can’t quite reach it — and you have to wait for someone to come and help you. I’ve always been so active, so it’s traumatic to be on the other side and be dependent on others.” He says he’s occasionally tempted to be angry, to wonder why it happened to him.
“ I’m surprised I don’t get angry, more often, but there’s no real point in that,” he said. “ I’ve got to get on with life and live it.
“ I’m going to beat this. When I’m done, people won’t know that I have an artificial leg, unless I go swimming or something like that. I probably won’t wear shorts very often, but my legs weren’t very good looking to begin with.”
He’s hoping to get back on a motorcycle and join the Southern Cruisers again on long- distance rides, even as they still mourn the death of one of their members on a charity ride in September. Jennifer Sultana, 44, was killed in Caledon during the annual TOMA Ride for Burned Kids. She was struck by another bike when she lost control and fell to the road in an effort to avoid a stopped car.
“ We’re a big family and we look out for each other,” McKiernon said. “ We have doctors, lawyers, business executives, truck drivers, paramedics. We’re
from every walk of life,
but when we’re together, we’re all the same.”
The club is busy organizing next month’s
Christmas party and
McKiernon hopes he
and Blanchette might
chance a spin on the dance floor. “Maybe we’ll have the first dance,” he said with a laugh. “ We’re going to try some sort of one- step.”