Shawn Cowie and crew member Nik Duperon, were travelling from Las Vegas to Charlotte and had stopped in Nashville, TN for a day of sightseeing.
They parked the race rig and got on their Harley motorcycles to tour the city, and were heading back when Cowie was struck by a drunk driver on the freeway.
He was thrown off his bike and flew over an overpass and down an embankment to the ground below.
He was seriously injured with numerous broken bones and had lost a lot of blood. For the first couple days they did not know if he would survive. After he had started to stabilize, the worry was whether or not he would lose his right leg. After three or four marathon major surgeries over the next three weeks, he started his long road to recovery.
Four weeks after the accident he was flown back to Canada, where his lengthy therapy began. He has been at Royal Columbia for four weeks and had the pins removed from his hip and right leg.
The loss of Cowie competing sent shock waves throughout North America.
One of the Cowie team’s closest friendly rivals in the sport, Hough racing, along with another fan from Seattle, started a Facebook page and designed a decal for teams to have on their cars in support of Cowie.
At the NHRA event at Boise, ID, almost every one of 350 teams in attendance carried the decal on their cars and support vehicles, and all charity money donated will go to MADD (Mothers against Drunk Drivers). At this weekend’s race here, over 1,000 decals will be available and again all donations will go to MADD
The young girl who hit Shawn has been charged, with multiple charges including vehicular assault and drunk driving. Her level was 0.19.