Family of motorcycle rider asking for help after dramatic crash in Richland
A 21-year-old man is facing months of surgeries after a Richland motorcycle crash on Columbia Point Drive.
Kennedy Mitchel has been in Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane since April 15, with broken bones in his face, toe, leg and a skull fracture.
He is facing an extended recovery with multiple surgeries, according to a GoFundMe organized by this aunt, Hollie Erickson.
“This is really hard,” his father, Casey Metz, told the Herald. “We have been here for five days now and we haven’t been working.”
His father described Mitchel as a “motorhead” who loves cars, motorcycles and shooting guns. He also loves his friends and family.
Richland police said he was riding with another person on Columbia Point Drive about 10 p.m. when he tried to go around a car on the right.
The car turned right into a driveway on the one-lane road and the two collided, police told the Herald. Mitchel was thrown from the bike, and severely hurt.
Family members told the Herald that he was trying to avoid a car that pulled out onto the road, and then turned into a driveway.
A friend and a bystander stayed with Mitchel, performed CPR and prayed, until emergency crews arrived, his father told the Herald.
He was taken to a local hospital and then flown to Spokane, he family said.
“Although this is tragic news for everyone, we have faith that Kennedy will pull through this,” Erickson wrote. “He is a FIGHTER!!”
People can make a donation to the GoFundMe at bit.ly/MitchelFundraiser.
The crash was one of three motorcycle-related crashes in the span of a day, the other two were fatal.
One in West Richland left a Pasco nurse dead when he collided with an SUV, and the other in Kennewick where a motorcyclist was thrown from the bike when he lost control in Columbia Park.
