Last Friday, Matt Hardy broke the sad news via Twitter that his best friend Shane Helms and Helms' girlfriend Karen Blalock Motley had both been hospitalised after a very serious motorcycle crash:
Last night, Shane & his girlfriend were in a very serious motorcycle accident.. They were both seriously injured, but they're both warriors.
Since its being reported in the dirtsheets, I wanted everyone to hear it from 1 of their close friends. Both are recovering & should be ok.
Shane & Karen, I love you guys, hang in there and stay strong!
According to f4wonline.com the next day, reminiscent of Brian Pillman's Humvee crash in April 1996, Helms suffered "a broken ankle, a broken jaw and a broken nose as well as other fractures, and needed 200 stitches", while his girlfriend suffered "a broken neck". In an unfortunately unsurprising development, TMZ is reporting that Helms may have been driving under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash:
According to the police report obtained by TMZ ... a witness told cops Helms was driving home from a restaurant in Smithfield, North Carolina around 9:15 PM -- with his GF on the bike -- when he blew through a stop sign, lost control and "drove straight through the metal chain link fence."
Cops say one of the witnesses told officers he was hanging out with Helms at a local restaurant minutes before the crash and said he "was sure" Helms had been drinking there. ...
Law enforcement sources tell us officers took a blood sample from Helms at the hospital to check his blood alcohol level at the time of the crash ... but it could take several months to get the results back.
So far, we're told an investigation is underway ... but no charges have been filed against Helms.
The development is unsurprising given that alcohol, maybe mixed with pills, has often been the root cause of the trouble Helms and his friends have gotten into in recent years. Helms was the bad influence that competed with Christopher Daniels in a drinking contest at Helms' house immediately prior to Daniels getting arrested for a DUI on his way home in late August 2009. Five months later, it was Helms' turn to be arrested with Chris Jericho for public intoxication after their drunken play fight in a taxi turned too physical, which led to his WWE firing soon after. Free from WWE's shackles he started his own webcast called Highway 2 Helms, where on one episode he and Matt Hardy drank a bottle of vodka while bragging about the Divas they'd bed. Helms has also gotten into several bar fights including most recently being cited for affray on March 13th 2011 after getting into a fight with a man who had inappropriately touched his girlfriend at a venue ironically called The Rehab. Hopefully this will be a wake up call and Helms will sort himself out after this narrow brush with death.