Dirt bike crash in desert leaves Pacific Beach man paralyzed

By Michael Chen

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    SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A weekend dirt bike ride in the desert turned horrific for a Pacific Beach man, leaving him paralyzed.

An adventure seeker, Dylan Taylor, 30, jumped at his friend’s invite to head out to the desert near El Centro to go dirt biking .

A photo shows the native of Australia, two Saturdays ago, after he and a small group had ridden out to a scenic spot.

Moments later, Taylor, who had to leave for Los Angeles to visit family, headed to back to the campsite with a friend.

“Only five minutes into that trip, it went downhill from there,” said Taylor.

With his helmet strapped on, Taylor says he was going about 30 miles per hour on flat terrain, when he looked back to make sure his friend was keeping up.

“Strayed off path, which ended up getting me into some much rougher terrain and kind of bouncing the bike up and down, and eventually bucking me, like throwing me off the bike,” said Taylor.

Taylor’s memory is a bit hazy, but he believes he was sent head first into the ground.

“I knew immediately I couldn’t move my legs,” said Taylor.

“I didn’t feel any pain. I just felt a lot of emotion, like made a big mistake that’s going to affect a lot of people,” said Taylor.

Taylor was airlifted to a hospital. He suffered three fractures to his spine and a damaged spinal cord, and is paralyzed from the chest down.

“That prognosis may improve, but the doctors don’t say that sort of stuff,” said Taylor.

Taylor knows the road ahead won’t be easy, but he is already planning how to adapt to perform his favorite activities, including spearfishing and mountain biking.

“I’m optimistic … Ever since COVID, I’ve always just sort of thought, ‘You got to live life.’ I don’t want to let anyone stop me from doing the things I love,” said Taylor.

Taylor, whose wife works as a researcher for UCSD health, says he’s also optimistic about medical breakthroughs that could help him.

A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help the family with expenses.

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