LAKE COUNTRY – An Okanagan man has injuries that are expected to take six months to heal, but Lake Country resident Tim Willms is just grateful it wasn’t any worse.
“If I wasn’t wearing a helmet, I’d either be dead or eating steak through a straw,” says Willms.
Willms was riding his dirt bike along the former rail right of way on June 3, when he encountered some unexpected and painful hazards.
“What I hit was a track that was buried underneath the trail,” says Willms.
“I don’t remember any of it. I woke up in the hospital on Saturday, June 4 with a broken femur.”
His was the first of two such injuries reported in a two week span on that same stretch of the corridor.
Last Wednesday, Kelowna resident Tanner Klassen says he was coming around a bend on his dirt bike when he too hit a metal rail, sending him to hospital with serious injuries.
CN Rail had disassembled the train tracks but Willms believes the rails were intentionally moved back.
“I get it, people aren’t supposed to ride their dirt bikes, their motorized vehicles along here. I get that. But is the harm we are causing really worth a broken ankle and a broken femur?” He says.
There are signs up along the trail that say no motorized vehicles are allowed on the trail and Lake Country’s mayor is encouraging residents to obey the rules.
Rail trail users that Global News spoke to on Monday were divided when asked their opinion on people riding motorized vehicles along the former right of way.
“I wouldn’t like it so much having the dirt bikers here because they drive like crazy,” says Lake Country resident Regine Janssen.
Another Lake Country resident Mary Paterson feels otherwise.
“If we all shared it and they were sensible, it’s no different than a bicycle in a way,” says Paterson.
As police investigate how the obstacles got there, concrete barriers have been placed across the trail close to where the accidents occurred.
The District of Lake Country says it has received a half dozen complaints about motorized vehicles on the trail over the past two weeks. The RCMP says it has not received complaints about the misuse of the trail.
In the meantime, Willms has some advice for his fellow dirt bikers.
“Maybe dirt bike where you’re supposed to dirt bike, wear a helmet regardless,” says Willms.
Words of experience from a rider facing months of recovery from what was supposed to be a fun afternoon ride.
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