No memory of crash, but lucky to be alive

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/02/2022 (1546 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Scott Cairns doesn’t remember being pulled out of the mangled wreck of his car or taken on a long ambulance ride to Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre.

As he recovers at home from injuries suffered in a harrowing crash, a photo of his crumpled 2016 Honda Fit is the only thing filling in the blanks.

It is coupled with thoughts of how the outcome could have been much worse.

“Everything was crushed except for the front two seats. It was pretty smacked up,” said the Winnipegger, who believes he’s fortunate to have survived the multiple-vehicle collision.

Cairns was driving through a blizzard on the Trans-Canada Highway at about noon last Friday when a tractor-trailer unit heading in the same direction crashed into the back of his car.

“I was going slow, and I guess the semi wasn’t going so slow,” he said.

As his car spun around in the westbound lanes approaching Elie — about 45 minutes west of Winnipeg — it was broadsided on the driver’s side by a second semi-trailer.

That’s what a doctor told Cairns when he regained consciousness hours later at HSC.

“I blacked out when it happened; the last thing I remember was driving along the highway, and the next memory was waking up in the hospital,” he said. “There’s not even a blur of a memory. I wish I could remember something.”

He doesn’t know who rescued him from the wreckage, and he doesn’t remember undergoing a CT scan in hospital, where he was treated and monitored for about 12 hours before being sent home.

Cairns, who does home-energy audits and also owns a computer repair and support business, described the weather as “terrible” as he drove to Portage la Prairie to visit a client.

Visibility was so poor he was already thinking about turning around in Elie and returning home shortly before the collision.

That day, police responded to multiple reports of crashes and vehicles in snow-packed ditches. Several highways were closed due to hazardous driving conditions.

After the collision involving Cairns, the westbound lanes of the Trans-Canada were shut down for hours between Headingley and Portage la Prairie.

Cairns said he was lucky to not have any broken bones, but he was banged up and is still in pain. Bruised ribs have made it difficult for him to breathe or sit down. He’s been forced to take time off work while he recovers.

He credits the car’s safety features — including the airbags that deployed — for his survival.

The crash happened a few days before his 53rd birthday.

“It’s remarkable that I was able to (survive),” he said. “I guess it’s the way they designed the car.”

Cairns said his son was shocked when he saw the demolished car afterward. Cairns’ father also found it hard to believe his son made it out alive.

No charges have been laid following the the collision, RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Julie Courchaine said.

Drivers in southern Manitoba faced extremely poor winter-driving conditions between Feb. 17 and 20 due to multiple blizzards and freezing rain. Snow- or ice-covered stretches of the Trans-Canada and other main routes were occasionally closed for driver safety.

And the problems continued this week; at about noon Thursday more than two dozen vehicles were involved in a pileup in the eastbound lanes of the Trans-Canada between Griswold and Alexander in western Manitoba.

The ice-coated highway was closed in both directions between Brandon and the Manitoba-Saskatchewan boundary for about 12 hours.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @chriskitching