EDITOR'S NOTE: With the Indy 500 set to roar on Sunday, Citizen sports reporter Ted Clarke takes a look back on the racing career of Cliff Hucul of Prince George; today is the last of a three-part series.
In all his years of racing cars, even at Indianapolis, where he once spun into a wall at 180 miles per hour, Cliff Hucul never needed an ambulance.
In fact, he'd gone 49 years without once needing a doctor's care in a hospital.
On Nov. 29, 1996, a patch of back ice on the highway west of Chetwynd changed that in an life-altering accident that left Hucul a paraplegic. Only a few hours away from his home in Prince George, the three-time Indianapolis 500 racer skidded off the road in his pickup truck and rolled lengthwise into a ditch.
"The roads were good and it was Friday night, getting pretty late, and I got on some black ice and the truck spun and the damn thing went over the bank and went end-over-end," Hucul said. "It landed on its wheels and one light stayed on and a trucker came by and saw my light. There was quite a bit of snow and if that light hadn't been on, they wouldn't have seen me."
Hucul was taken to Chetwynd hospital with a collapsed lung and spinal injury and was flown the next morning to Vancouver. After six more weeks in hospital, he went to the G.F. Strong Rehabilitation Centre to learn how to deal with his paralysis.
"I was there for a few months and then I came home to try to sort my life out," said Hucul, now 63.
"It was hard to get my head around that one. I had been in race cars my whole life and I'd been in a few substantial wrecks, but I never had to go to the hospital for anything."
See Saturday's Citizen for more.
