Friend of the magazine Toly Arutunoff is in serious but stable condition in the aftermath of a gruesome highway accident during the blizzard that struck much of the USA during early February. Arutunoff was headed for the annual SCCA National Convention in Las Vegas on February 8 when he stopped to assist a fellow motorist stranded by the storm along Interstate 40 near Amarillo, Texas.
As Arutunoff was attempting to extricate the other driver from a snowbank, he was struck by a second car and crushed between the two vehicles. The assailant then backed up and sped way, leaving Arutunoff grievously injured. His right leg was severed by the impact and his left leg was crushed and is likely to be amputated as well. Arutunoff is being attended by a team of prosthetic specialists at the Oklahoma University Medical Center, to which he was airlifted after the accident.
Toly is a man of broad sensibilities who will no doubt find a humorous side to his predicament, and were he to need a role model for his recuperation, there would seem to be none better than Alex Zanardi, the two-time Indycar champion who suffered similar injuries in a crash during 2001. All of us in the Vintage Racecar community extend our best wishes for what will no doubt be a lengthy recovery.
