Salsa music legend has ‘long road to recovery’ after Outer Banks accident
Salsa music legend Willie Colón is still recovering after a motor-home accident on the Outer Banks, the star tweeted.
The singer crashed his RV on April 20 on U.S. 64 on the Virginia Dare Bridge, 3.7 miles west of the Manteo city limits.
He said in a tweet last week he had received lots of support after the accident, but news of him being “OK” is not accurate.
“I have long road to recovery to walk,” Colón tweeted.
Colón suffered a concussion, lacerations to his scalp that required 16 staples, and fractures to his C1 cervical vertebra, according to a statement posted to his social media pages.
He spent time at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital recovering. After leaving Norfolk, the South Bronx native was taken to the New York-Presbyterian health care system, and an employee said Wednesday he was at its Columbia Neurosurgery facility. A spokesperson for the healthcare system said they had no further information.
Colón’s wife, who was treated at the Outer Banks Hospital, had lacerations and contusions.
The accident occurred as he was driving a 1976 model RV, pulling another vehicle behind it, a spokesman from the North Carolina State Highway Patrol said.
The trooper who responded to the scene said it was a 60 mph zone. Colón was driving the speed limit and heading west when he ran off the road to the right and hit the face of the bridge. He overcorrected and crossed the westbound lanes, then his vehicle stopped against the bridge divider. He never crossed into oncoming traffic, said Sgt. S.D. Hurley with highway patrol.
The RV sustained about $15,000 in damage. Colón was cited for failing to maintain lane control, but wasn’t driving recklessly or speeding, highway patrol said.
Colón started playing the trumpet at 14 years old, and his collaboration “Siembra” was the top-selling salsa album for two decades, according to PBS.
He also received a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004, and has worked in politics, running for office in New York. He has starred in films and appeared in the TV show “Miami Vice” in the late 1980s, and was portrayed by actor John Ortiz in the 2006 biopic “El cantante.”
The film chronicled fellow musician Hector Lavoe’s contribution to the salsa movement in the 1970s, starring Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez.
Colón’s team did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“Thank you for all you have given me through the years,” he tweeted most recently about the accident. “With God’s help I will come back. God bless.”