Injured BMX Rider Shows Progress

Professional BMX rider Cory Nastazio, who was critically injured in a Saturday car crash, was conscious and talking to family members and friends Wednesday, the Riverside man’s stepfather said.

Nastazio, 25, suffered a brain hemorrhage and a punctured right lung when his Honda Civic slammed into a tree near Buchanan Street in an unincorporated area of Riverside County.

“Cory’s out of the woods,” said Mike “Highway” Flueck, Nastazio’s stepfather, speaking by telephone from his home in West Palm Beach, Fla. “[Tuesday] night, Cory woke up and started pulling the tubes and IVs [out] and said, ‘All I want to do is see my mom.’ He was hurt but he was excited. He was near death but he came back.”

Riverside Police Sgt. Don Taulli, who investigated the crash, said a witness saw Nastazio driving 55 to 60 mph in a 35-mph zone. The witness reported that Nastazio ran a stop sign without slowing, and that his car then drifted off the rural roadway and barreled into the tree about 20 feet off the road without severe skidding.

Taulli said results of a blood test on Nastazio are pending, and that Nastazio probably would not be cited.

“He doesn’t need to be fined. He hurt himself. He has enough to worry about,” Taulli said. The crash “reinforces the idea to slow down and pay attention when you’re driving.”

Doctors at Riverside Community Hospital had induced a coma in an attempt to accelerate his healing, said his manager, Kimarie Hunt.

Doctors continued neurological tests of Nastazio on Wednesday, Hunt said, remaining optimistic the bleeding would stop and that his recovery would continue.

Hunt said Nastazio’s fans had overwhelmed operators by trying to call him and find out his condition. A hospital spokeswoman on Wednesday refused to confirm that Nastazio was a patient there.

Nastazio, a silver medalist at the 2001 ESPN Summer X Games and gold medalist in Australia’s 2002 X Games, gained popularity by pulling rare double back flips over his bike while jumping through the air. Flueck said he was confident Nastazio would try to ride in the next X Games in August.

“Cory’s coming back, I’m telling you,” Flueck said. “I know him too well.”