HAUSER, Idaho – The night of Dec. 14 changed Joshua Olsen’s life.
“(I was) riding home from work and the next thing I know headlights come at me,” he said.
Olsen said he was on his motorcycle around Hamilton and Cataldo in Spokane when a dark pickup truck hit him and fled the scene.
“Next thing I can remember is a guy helping me out of the middle of the road,” he said, “and my leg just dangling out there.”
Cataldo and his girlfriend, Beth McKenna, still haven’t been able to track down the driver.
“Driving around town I keep looking at a dark truck, seeing if there’s damage on it,” McKenna said.
With rods and screws in his leg, Olson is expected to take about eight months to fully recover. As a truck driver, he’ll be unable to work in the meantime, so McKenna set up a GoFundMe for him, and set up a two-day in-person fundraiser and awareness event at Curlie’s Saloon in Hauser, Idaho.
“We got a lot of clapback for (Olson) riding in December,” McKenna said. “The reason I’m doing this is to let people know that you can ride in a December month, there are ways to do it and be prepared. But there are people out there who are on their phones, that aren’t paying attention, that aren’t keeping an eye out for riders.”
With people heading to Curlie’s to donate time, money and other goods, Olson felt the love.
“It’s truly amazing how many people came in and donated all this stuff,” he said. “I never expected all this.”
