Unmarked wire: Dirt bike rider recalls dangerous encounter
A young man from Lethbridge is telling the story of how he was injured by an unmarked wire that had been strung across a trail in the community, an accident similiar to one that killed a teenager from the same town in 2012.
Jeff Coleman, now 18 and a student at Memorial University, said his accident happened July 9, 2010 when he was riding his 125cc Suzuki to a friend's house.
"There was an electric horse wire right across the path. I guess it was for blocking horses in, but it wasn't marked off or anything," Coleman told CBC's Here and Now.
"It was about neck level and it hit me in the neck, and it burned."
He said he wasn't speeding, and the trail was familiar — one he used all the time to visit his friend.
"Everybody knew that was the only path to take, or that was one of the paths to take," he said.
"I didn't know it was there. Nobody said anything, and it wasn't marked off at all. It was a thin wire maybe the size of a fishing line, and it was strung across the path with no tape or nothing marking it off."
Coleman said the wire also cut his fingers when he tried to push it away.
"When it hit me I didn't know what happened," he said.
"I walked up to the house and I used my foot to knock on the door, and that's pretty much the last thing I remember from there."
He said he must have fainted, and someone called his mother. His next memory is waking up in hospital.
"I had blisters across my neck for a long time."
Boy killed in similar accident
Coleman's accident happened two years before another Lethbridge boy, 15-year-old Stephen Brown, was killed by an unmarked road barrier.
Brown died in October, 2012 when he drove his dirt bike into a chain that had been strung across an access road to a local scrap yard.
Brown's mother Michelle has been lobbying since then for tougher laws to control road barriers, and to punish land owners who don't put up markers.
Coleman said he was "upset and angry" when he learned about Brown's death.
"There should be a law that you're not allowed to block off any path or road or trail with a wire or anything that you can barely see," he told CBC.
Coleman said his accident wasn't reported to police, but his mother, Annie Holloway, told CBC Thursday she called the RCMP, but was told there was nothing they could do.
She said there is no town council in Lethbridge, and the family didn't pursue the matter.
Coleman said he has not talked to the family that he believes put up the wire.
"I haven't heard anything from them. They haven't really acknowledged it," he said, adding that Lethbridge is a small town.
"I don't think I ever took that trail again. It was traumatizing."
CBC contacted the premier's office, which said the issue of unmarked road barriers in the Lethbridge area has been sent to Neil King, the MHA for Bonavista.
A spokesperson for the government members said Tuesday that King will be issuing a statement in the coming days.
Correction : An earlier version of this story identified Jeff Coleman as Jeff Holloway.(Feb 10, 2016 12:13 PM)
