Guitar saves life
Guitar saves life
Man in hospital after being dragged by garbage truck
By Cole Hobson
Times & Transcript Staff Published Saturday April 5th, 2008
If there's any solace to be taken away from a horrific accident involving a pedestrian being struck and dragged down St. George Street by a city garbage truck, it is this -- the guitar case he was carrying may have saved his life.
A Moncton area man is currently in hospital suffering from serious injuries after being struck by the garbage truck close to 1 a.m. yesterday on St. George Street near Deluxe Restaurant.
"We think he landed on the guitar case and I think it saved him from more serious injuries," said Moncton Deputy Fire Chief Don McCabe, noting that amongst the victims' injuries were a broken femur and shoulder, in addition to other possible minor and internal injuries.
"When we arrived he was laying on top of (the guitar case) -- we just assumed that was an indication that he was dragged a little bit as there were skidmarks from the guitar case."
RCMP investigation is ongoing and many details are thus far being withheld, but early unconfirmed reports indicate the victim may have skidded across the pavement for as much as 50 feet.
The victim was immediately rushed to the hospital, and as of late yesterday afternoon was in intensive care and was in stable condition, according to Chantal Farrah of the Codiac RCMP.
Officials haven't released the pedestrian's name, but the Times & Transcript has learned the victim's identity is Jason Nicholson, a musician in his early thirties who performs around town in local nightclubs and is more commonly known as "J-Byrd".
Farrah said investigators are now looking into the details of the crash but mentioned early indications are that the truck was backing up when the victim crossed behind it and was struck.
It isn't yet clear how the victim would have been dragged by the truck and more details are expected to be uncovered as investigations continue.
It's also not yet known whether or not the victim intoxication played a role in the accident.
Don Morehouse, director of public works with the city, said the department will attempt to figure out exactly what happened through investigations and determine whether or not a change to policy is necessary.
"We're treating this very seriously. Any type of accident related to this type of incident really causes us concern -- reviewing safety is number one with us," Morehouse said. "This type of training obviously is something we take very seriously and we've developed a very strong safety program to hopefully avoid these types of situations."
Morehouse adds that while it is unknown what caused the accident, it's a good reminder for citizens to exercise caution in public areas.
"These vehicles are so large, so the public is always encouraged to respect the size of the vehicles when they're working around town," he said.
Upon the news breaking, members of the popular local webforum Monctonlocals.com were already making plans to raise money to buy Nicholson a new guitar and were contemplating a possible benefit concert.
Needless to say, while far from a fortunate situation to be in, the performer who was believed to have been coming from a gig is lucky to have had his guitar with him.
"I just know there were scrape marks and if that was his body scraping the ground it would be a lot more severe than the guitar case scraping," McCabe said.
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