Motorcycle photo shoot takes tragic turn for Kamloops newlyweds
It was a beautiful late September day when Kamloops newlyweds Nick and Nikki Dunn took their motorcycles to a quiet dirt road for the bride to have a photoshoot.
The pair had married just ten days prior and were looking forward to a honeymoon in Cancun.
“We were so excited and very much in the honeymoon phase,” Nick told iNFOnews.ca. “We were still celebrating our marriage and she wanted a few more photos of her on her motorcycle. She loves riding it, it’s her baby.”
With Nikki on her motorcycle in her flowing white gown, and the couple’s son behind the camera, the photo shoot was a success until the last pass when disaster struck and turned the couple’s celebration of love into a nightmare.
“It was the last run and her dress had blown back and got wound up in the back wheel,” Nick said.
The bike crashed and Nikki was trapped in the dress, unable to move.
The accident put her in hospital with a shattered pelvis, a subdermal hematoma, rib fractures, soft tissue damage and road rash almost to the bone in some places.
Nick is still struggling to cope with the images from the scene. After the crash, he dropped his bike and ran to her and had to figure out how to untangle her from the bike while she screamed in pain going in and out of consciousness.
“The image of my wife tangled up in a motorcycle bleeding out and losing consciousness is horrific,” he said. “The trauma of the event is reaching deep and pulling on parts of me I didn’t know were there. I blame myself. It’s my job to protect my wife.”
Nick was able to yank the dress from the wheel by reaching under the bike and pulling the clutch in to free the tire from its gear. With pushing and pulling, he got the tire spinning and hauled the dress out, ripping parts of it off his wife’s body to free her.
Some people stopped to help and called 911.
The pair have been together for a couple of years and he has been working for her in her residential cleaning business. He is currently emailing customers the news, trying to find some help for the business, looking after a kid, a house and mostly his wife.
“My whole life is upside down,” Nick said. “I refer to it as trying to put a puzzle together while its upside down blindfolded. I just don’t know what to do.”
The couple won't get to go to their honeymoon which is non-refundable. The motorcycle is damaged. The wedding dress is destroyed. There are months of physiotherapy and occupational therapy ahead while Nikki heals and relearns how to walk unassisted.
As for any insurance coverage, Nick said the case is looking like a dicey grey zone.
He's reaching out to the community for help through an online fundraiser.
“It’s going to take some time physically for her, and emotionally and mentally for us,” Nick said. “One second it was so beautiful, we were in that honeymoon stage and one second later this trauma. I'm overwhelmed. I still can’t make sense of it.”
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