Kiwi MX Star Prumm Badly Injured in Crash

New Zealand motocross star Katherine Prumm suffered a severe accident last week while training last week and is facing an uncertain future as far as her career goes.

While training in west Auckland last Thursday, Prumm mistimed a jump and fell nearly 10 feet, landing head-first with her bike falling on top of her. The 20-year-old was transported to a local hospital where doctors diagnosed her with a fractured back.  She had to wait three days for surgery to fuse three unstable vertebrae to stable ones above and below.

Prumm has won two motocross world titles in a row and was already sidelined by injury earlier in 2008 and was unable to repeat.  Now she’s unsure of whether she will ever ride a motorcycle again.

“As far as recovery goes, I haven’t really been told too much yet, about walking or riding,” she said.

“I think I’m more anxious to find out whether I’ll be all right or not,” she told NZPA.  “Not a lot else matters at the moment.”

Prumm’s accident is the latest in a string of significant injuries to major action sports stars, dating back to last year’s crash by BMX star Stephen Murray.

Read more about the accident here.