Cirque du Soleil acrobat fighting to retake the stage after Las Vegas hit-and-run crash

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - An acrobat with Cirque du Soleil, who was seriously injured in a hit-and-run crash, is now on the road to recovery.

Calling it his “dream job,” Chase Webster moved to Las Vegas about a year ago to be in a Cirque du Soleil shows performing on the trampoline.

A bike ride home one August night turned into a nightmare when he was hit by a white SUV that never stopped.

“I was hit somewhere around these two pillars out here in the street and knocked clean all the way into this intersection,” Webster described to FOX5 while standing on Las Vegas Blvd. near Charleston.

Webster has no memory of the hit and run itself. The impact so violent it threw his body 50 feet. His shoes flying in an entirely different direction.

“My guess is that I went up and over the hood of the car and the bike was basically taken underneath,” Webster explained.

“I was multiple streets away the last thing I remember, and then hours later was in the hospital was waking up to them putting stitches in my head,” Webster recounted. Webster suffered a major concussion, deep gashes to his face and scalp, and a badly torn knee ligament. A worker at a nearby Thai restaurant ran out to help him and called 911.

“He had found me on the ground, and he thought that I was dead,” Webster shared.

Since the accident, Webster has been doing physical therapy and treatments for the concussion to help with his cognition, balance, coordination, and memory.

“At first it was a really tough and difficult moment trying to figure out what I was going to do, where I was going to go for my job and work, and how my contract was going to end up because I’d given everything to get here and all of a sudden it was gone,” Webster confessed.

On Friday, the acrobat heads to surgery for his knee and torn ACL.

“I can be as upset as I want to be about the past and what had happened, but it is not going to help me at all for the things coming forward,” Webster asserted. Webster is determined to one day return to the big stage on the Strip and continue to live his dream.

“Following the surgery, it will be anywhere from 6-12 months of recovery…

to where I can bounce on a trampoline and so my very demanding job,” Webster stated.

As for the driver who hit him and took the job he loves away for now, Webster said he understands they were likely scared that night but hopes they will do the right thing.

“I understand the first reaction, but you know I hope that you would do everything you can to go forward after and make amends,” Webster said.

Part of the hit-and-run incident was captured on camera. The video is blurry and doesn’t show the impact, but the white SUV was driving between 40 and 50 mph as it came through a narrow construction area and hit Webster from behind.

Webster does have health insurance through his work but started a fundraiser for a new bike: Fundraiser by Chase Webster : Replace my bike from a hit and run accident (gofundme.com)

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