Driver suffers life-threatening injuries in horse racing accident at Meadows
A driver in a harness race at the Hollywood Casino at the Meadows horse track suffered life-threatening injuries Wednesday afternoon when he was thrown from his sulky and struck his head on the track.
Hunter Myers was in the 11th race with Always B Royalty about 4:30 p.m. when another horse in the race appeared to break stride, causing a chain-reaction crash that threw Myers backwards and onto the track.
Medics tended to Myers, 27, on the track for what appeared to be a major head injury, and he was taken by medical helicopter to a Pittsburgh hospital.
The 12th and 13th races at the North Strabane casino track were canceled following the incident. Other drivers suffered minor injuries, but none of the horses were hurt in the incident.
According to a Facebook video highlighting his career in early February, Myers raced nearly 20,000 times and won nearly 2,400 times. The Williamsport, Ohio, native had been involved in harness racing since he was 16 years old, according to a story published by Daily Racing Form.
It was not known when racing would resume at the track.
“Out of respect to the Meadows Racing Community, the Meadows has canceled racing for the remainder of the week,” the Meadows said in a written statement Wednesday night.
It was not immediately clear which police agency was investigating the accident at the North Strabane casino racetrack.