

Chris Fox, CP24.com





An Ontario Provincial Police officer has a “long road of recovery ahead of him” after he was struck by a goose and crashed his motorcycle while participating in a training exercise along Highway 11 Thursday morning, OPP Commissioner Vince Hawkes says.

Const. Pete Tucker suffered very serious injuries to his legs after the accident on Highway 11 near Highway 400 at around 9:20 a.m.

Tucker, who is a member of the OPP Niagara detachment, was initially rushed to Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie before being airlifted to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre where he remains in critical but stable condition.

According to Hawkes, there is a “possibility” that Tucker could lose one of his legs due to his injuries.

“He is stable right now, but his family is here and his wife is here and they are going through a very difficult time,” Hawkes told reporters outside the hospital Thursday afternoon. “As you can imagine, flying off a motorcycle at a speed, your extremities are going to be impacted.”

Tucker was travelling southbound on Highway 11 near Highway 400 with about 14 other OPP motorcycles when the accident happened.

The officers were participating in a motorcade training exercise at the time and the highway was closed as a result.

“One of the real advantages of what happened today was that the highway was already shut down so when he collided with the bird and went across a number of lanes of track the highway was blocked. That is a very, very positive thing,” Hawkes told reporters. “Fortunately, there were also a large number of officers there who were able to conduct first aid and call for help.”

Tucker an ‘experienced’ officer

Tucker, who is believed to be in his 40s, was a member of the Golden Helmets Motorcycle Precision Team and was a very experienced officer and motorcycle rider, according to Hawkes.

The Golden Helmets perform at events across the province, promoting the OPP and motorcycle safety.

“He is very, very experienced and it is just one of these fluke accidents where he just happened to be in a certain place when a goose collided with him,” Hawkes said.

Highway 11 was closed in both directions between Highway 93 and Highway 400 as police investigated the collision, but it was reopened at around 1 p.m.

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