Amputee to run Los Angeles Marathon to raise awareness on hit-and-run epidemic

ByLeanne Suter KABC logo

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Amputee to run Los Angeles Marathon to raise awareness on hit-and-run epidemic

After losing one of his legs, a local man has made it his mission to complete the Los Angeles Marathon Sunday to raise awareness on the hit-and-run epidemic in the city.

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- With a quick change, switching one leg for another, Damien Kevitt is off and running.

"This thing costs almost as much as my car," Kevitt says, referring to his prosthetic leg which is made up of carbon fiber and aluminum alloy.

The amputee is ready for the Los Angeles Marathon Sunday, a race, he says, he shouldn't be able to run.

In February 2013, Kevitt was riding his bike to the Los Angeles Zoo when a driver in a light-colored minivan struck him, dragged him 600 feet down the Interstate 5 onramp and fled the scene.

Kevitt had on a helmet, but the collision broke 20 bones and crushed his right leg.

While lying in the hospital bed with his right leg amputated below the knee and his body severely injured, Kevitt set his eyes on a few goals.

Damien Kevitt was struck by a hit-and-run driver while riding his bicycle to the Los Angeles Zoo on Feb. 17, 2013.

"In that hospital bed, in intensive care, I started my marathon training, the second day out of my accident," Kevitt said.

Through rehab, Kevitt learned to walk and even ride his bike again, but the marathon was still looming so he focused on one mission.

"It's finishing the L.A. Marathon for the 4-year-old girl who just died in Glendale and the 21-year-old girl that just died in Malibu," he said.

Kevitt is running for those who can't, using his story of survival to raise awareness on the hit-and-run epidemic in L.A.

"We're talking 48 percent of all accidents are hit-and-run crimes; 7,500 people every year are sent to the hospital or killed," Kevitt said. "We're talking grotesque numbers. I was one of the few that got hit and dragged and just mutilated and survived. I had to do something about that."

With each pounding mile, Kevitt says he'll be focused on getting out his message. One that comes from losing so much.

"Dammit! If you hit someone, stop the car," Kevitt said. "If the person who had hit me had simply stopped, I would have walked away. Instead, I got pinned underneath the car and dragged a quarter of a mile."

The hit-and-driver who struck Kevitt has not been identified or arrested.