The Edmonton Valley Zoo employee hit by a car “driving erratically” in the parking lot last week says he can’t remember the crash that changed his life.
“The nurse walked up to me — I woke up and I asked, ‘what happened why am I in here’?” Adam Fortier said on Sunday, after being released from hospital on Thursday.
“She said, ‘You got hit by a car.’ I kind of, at the moment, laughed and said, ‘Well that sucks.'”
Police are investigating the pedestrian collision which happened the morning of Tuesday, Dec. 10 in the zoo parking lot near 133 Street and Buena Vista Road.
It was reported to police that two vehicles were driving erratically, when they were approached by a staff member.
According to EPS, one of the vehicles and the staff member reportedly made contact after which both vehicles fled the area.
The 26-year-old is now wearing a sling and said he’s barely able to walk. While Fortier tries to keep positive, what happened to him in the parking lot was no laughing matter.
“From what the witness account was, the vehicle drove directly into our son.”
That co-worker said Fortier was trying to stop the vehicles from driving recklessly when they allegedly turned on him.
“To be told that your son has been hit by a car — it shook me pretty good. It scared me a lot,” Fortier’s father Cory Fortier said.
The incident is especially difficult for the family because the Fortiers have already lived every parent’s nightmare once before.
“We lost a son in 2011. Aaron, he was three. To get a call that your oldest son’s been in an accident was emotionally hard. It was very hard, it still is,” the shaken parents said.
Suffering from two broken vertebrae, a brain bleed and lacerations, Fortier spent several days in hospital.
“I’m frustrated. There’s a lot of things I’d rather be doing right now than sitting in my house in a bed,” Adam said.
Now living with constant pain, limited mobility and the uncertainty of a full recovery, Fortier and his family are calling for justice.
“I hope they are caught,” Fortier said. “I hope they have some sort of conscience and come forward with what’s happened.
“I just don’t know how you could leave somebody on the ground after you’ve hit them with a vehicle and just drive off carefree, it’s kind of twisted.”
“I want to be able to face the person that did this to him and just ask why?” Rachell Fortier said.
The couple said the car involved was a dark-coloured BMW. Police have said they’re looking at video surveillance from the parking lot that day and hope to provide an update as soon as possible.
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