Father describes Tonopah teen’s recovery after hitting a cow with motorcycle
TONOPAH, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) - Christopher Armbrister likes to hang out with friends and ride ATVs and motorbikes. That’s exactly what he was doing last Monday night when the Tonopah teenager hopped on his motorcycle and headed to a friend’s house in Aguila, west of the Valley. He never made it.
Kelley Armbrister said his son was involved in a freak accident when he crashed into a cow crossing a remote roadway. “Definitely, you can see the cow, and see the motorcycle in a lot of pieces,” said Armbrister. “Obviously, it’s a dark road, a black cow, he probably never even saw it coming.”
“I think he flew off the motorcycle and hit the ground,” said Armbrister. “He was probably on the verge of consciousness when they found him, like across the street, just all spread out and unable to breathe.”
Christopher had likely been lying on the side of the road for 30 minutes to an hour before he was spotted and then airlifted to a Phoenix-area hospital in critical condition.
His dad thinks his son was going about 60-70 miles an hour when he hit the cow. “Cows don’t have headlights,” said Armbrister. “Black cow, middle of the night, you cant see it coming. It’s like hitting a brick wall.”
The cow died at the scene, while Christopher has spent the past week in ICU, in a medically induced coma. “All you can do is keep positive, and keep looking at it like, we’re gonna wake up, gonna wake him up,” said Armbrister. “Hopefully, he’ll become more responsive in the next couple of days.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Christopher’s family with medical expenses. For details, click here. “We have a good community,” said Armbrister. “A lot of people out there want to help. I have gotten a lot of text messages. It’s even hard to resume going back to work while answering the phone calls, text messages, and concerns.”
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