Above watch: A Dartmouth family is offering a cash reward to find the driver responsible for a crash that sent a young man to hospital over the weekend. Rebecca Lau reports.
HALIFAX – A Dartmouth family is offering a cash reward to find the driver responsible for a crash that sent a young man to hospital over the weekend.
Mitchell Rourke, 24, is an experienced motorcycle rider who had just purchased a new bike last Wednesday. On Saturday evening at around 6:15 p.m., he was travelling on Highway 102 in Halifax and taking the off-ramp to Highway 103, when another car tried to pass him.
“The vehicle continued to go past him on the exit ramp forcing him into the ditch,” said Rourke’s stepfather Robert Bishop.
Rourke hit his head against a cement barrier and his motorcycle landed in a pool of water in the median between two off-ramps. He told his family he heard the vehicle slow down before speeding off.
“It was a callous action or it maybe it was a careless action, I don’t know. The person didn’t stop to help or explain himself. He just left,” Bishop said.
Rourke’s sister Samantha said it was a woman travelling in the opposite direction who spotted him and and pulled over to help.
“Someone pulled up on the other side of the road and saw my brother crawling up the ditch, apparently with a bone sticking out of his arm,” she said.
“They came over and asked if he was okay. He said he wasn’t okay and then he laid down on the ground. He doesn’t really remember too much after that.”
The woman called 911 and Rourke was taken to hospital, where he was still recovering on Wednesday. He has since undergone several procedures and requires both skin and muscle grafts on his left arm.
“He’s never going to have the same life anymore. He’s left-handed and his left wrist is shattered,” his sister said, adding he has lost sensation in a few of his fingers.
“I think we really need to find the driver not just for the insurance but so they can own up to what they did.”
The family is offering a $500 cash reward for information about the driver or car, which they believe is a four-door Cobalt with a rear spoiler. They also plan to put ads in the newspaper.
May is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month and Geoff MacLellan, the province’s Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal Minister, launched the campaign in Dartmouth on Wednesday morning.
“Every day, you’re reminded of the importance of safety and that one little mistake can lead to tragedy,” he told Global News at the event. “It becomes about awareness and alertness out on the roads with a motorbike so that’s the message that we try to share.”
Bishop said his stepson’s accident highlights the message the awareness month is trying to send.
“It’s exactly what can happen when somebody is not paying attention or not sharing the road.”
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