A long-time Park City instructor needs help from the ski and snowboarding community following a heartbreaking hit-and-run incident.
Back on February 28th, Martin Taylor was teaching two snowboarders at Utah’s Park City Mountain Resort. While approaching the intersection of Mainline and Alleycat, a woman rammed into the instructor. According to one of the snowboarders that Martin was teaching, the woman didn’t stop and continued down the slope.
Martin Taylor described what the moment of collision felt like to KUTV 2 News Utah:
“All of a sudden I was being flipped through the air. And eventually, I came to a halt, and when I did the scariest thing was, I couldn’t actually breathe.”
The woman’s identity is not known, but witnesses saw that it was a tall woman who was wearing a white colored one-piece with pink sides. Due to the lack of information, her identity is unlikely to be discovered.
Martin’s injuries from the incident were extensive. He suffered compression fractures on his thoracic spine and T8 vertebra. This week, Martin explained the pain he’s still dealing with to TownLift:
“It’ll be up to them [the spine specialists] to decide on the severity of the compressions, but right now, I’m still getting headaches. My back pain is enough that it wakes me up in the early hours every day. I just can’t be comfortable. I’m not comfortable sitting, standing, or lying for any length of time.”
The injuries are expected to keep Martin out of his two main jobs for a while. At Park City Mountain Resort, he’s expected to miss the rest of the 2023-24 season. With his other job, where he’s a flight attendant with Delta, he’s expected to miss four to six weeks of work. He’s also known as a voiceover artist and holds a world record holder in slalom skateboarding.
The good news is that people are stepping up in Martin’s time of need. A GoFundMe has been started by an anonymous person to help Martin out with the excessive amount of medical costs brought onto him by the U.S. healthcare system. Click here to help Martin and his family out.
Image/Video Credits: Martin Drayton, Park City Mountain Resort
