BOISE, Idaho — Looking at a photo of her husband, Ed Bruce, Rozalin describes how the last month and a half has been an extremely difficult time for her and Ed.
“It's hard, they keep wanting us to be optimistic, but one day he's walking and the next day he can’t move anything,” said Rozalin Bruce.
On January 30, Ed was driving on Cloverdale Road, when a speeding driver crashed into his car, Rozalin told KTVB. “A car came up behind him in excess of 95 miles an hour and rear-ended him, flipping his car over and into a canal, ejecting him from the driver’s seat out the back window and now he is paralyzed,” Bruce said.
She adds that police say the driver was under the influence at the time. Doctors didn't know if Ed would survive. “He went straight into surgery to try and remove the pressure from his spine, and it was very critical,” Bruce said.
What makes this even more devastating, is for the last 10 years, Ed has run a car and driver service, where he and one of his employees will pick up anyone who has been drinking and make sure they, along with their car, get home safely. Ed had just dropped off a client and was driving back to a bar in Meridian to pick up another person when that driver slammed into his car.
“Oh, he's very angry. We're both very angry that he was doing something that was helping the community in keeping the streets safe at night. He worked every night seven days a week for 10 years because he loved doing what he did,” Bruce said. “And so it's ironic that he should be injured by a drunk driver and we're feeling like insulted almost.”
He is now at St. Lukes Elks Rehab Center.
“He's still paralyzed from the chest down and doesn't have any use of his fingers but he can move his arms up and down and around, so they're working with him on that,” Bruce said.
As Ed works to recover, the community has come together to support him and what's happened. Boise bar, Charlie Browns, along with other local bars held a steak benefit and silent auction to raise money for Ed's medical expenses, raising $16,000.00.
“You shouldn't drink and drive ever, even if it's a mile away that you have to go, something bad could happen and it has a ripple effect,” Bruce said.
She goes on to say, doctors are unsure how much mobility Ed will get back at this time. One of his friends has started a gofundme for the family.
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