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Kelowna  

Paper carrier walking once again

By all accounts, the man who was struck by a speeding car in Rutland in December is recovering and doing much better.

Jack Kania (Steve Kania’s uncle) says his nephew is now able to walk around the rehab centre of Kelowna General Hospital, albeit with a walker.

Steve has been at KGH since he was transferred back from Vancouver last month. He suffered several fractures to his lower back, along with some head trauma for which he was placed into an induced coma.

“He’s doing quite well. He’s talking and can give you a good conversation,” says Jack.

“The only problem he’s having is with his eyes. His eyes can focus for a while, then all at once they start getting blurry – so there’s still something going wrong in his head and they need to examine him a little further.”

Nonetheless Jack says Steve is taking part in daily physiotherapy and seems to be getting stronger.

He has asked about the night of Dec. 7, when Steve was struck by a car involved in a high speed chase with police, but says he didn’t want to talk about it and Jack chose not to press the issue.

“He didn’t really want to talk about it and didn’t say too much so I don’t even know if he remembers too much,” says Jack.

“But he’s pretty positive so I was quite surprised. Usually when something happens to somebody they’re kind of bitter and everything, but he’s not bitter at all.”

Nathan Fahl was arrested as the driver of the speeding car, but there is now controversy over who was actually at the wheel when Steve was injured.

Another man, Donald Brodie has admitted to being the driver. The matter is still before the courts.

An investigation into the incident by the Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO) is still ongoing.

Officials with the IIO say an announcement will be made once the investigation is complete. No time frame for completion of the investigation was provided.

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