![\"Steven](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/REG-L-AdaptiveBike-02.jpg\")
Steven McLaughlin prior to a 2023 workplace accident in which he broke his neck. (Courtesy of Steven McLaughlin)<\/p>\nFor most of the first four decades of his life, Steven McLaughlin lived in high gear.<\/p>\n
The Blandon man drove race cars, he tore around the woods on ATVs. He was always moving, the faster the better.<\/p>\n
He was even known to have jumped off a roof into a swimming pool.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018The need for speed\u2019 and \u2018no fear\u2019 were really his mottos,\u201d his wife, Amanda, said.<\/p>\n
On July 31, 2023, that changed.<\/p>\n
It was a Monday, three days after Steven had been behind the wheel of his race car at a local track, and Steven was at work at a Wyomissing company where he had been employed for just seven months.<\/p>\n
He was tasked with emptying a large metal dumpster filled to the brim with scrap metal.<\/p>\n
Steven remembers moving the scrap metal bin to the edge of a 4-foot-high loading dock. He remembers standing beside it.<\/p>\n
But he doesn\u2019t remember what caused the thousand-pound bin to tumble and crash onto the concrete below. And he doesn\u2019t remember how he lost his balance, plummeting along with it.<\/p>\n
In fact, Steven doesn\u2019t remember much of anything from the time he fell until about a month later, when he found himself in a hospital bed in an intensive care unit paralyzed from the neck down.<\/p>\n
Steven McLaughlin prior to a 2023 workplace accident in which he broke his neck. (Courtesy of Steven McLaughlin)<\/p>\n
When Steven fell off the loading dock, he had landed on his head and broke his neck. The injuries were catastrophic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember thinking we\u2019d never go anywhere, we\u2019d never do anything again,\u201d said Amanda, who at the time had only been married to Steven for two years.<\/p>\n
Steven has been determined to make sure that\u2019s not the case.<\/p>\n
The 41-year-old said he remembers sitting in his bed at Reading Hospital watching television, unable to move. After much effort, he found himself able to slightly move his right arm.<\/p>\n
He decided that was just a starting point.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, \u2018I gotta keep going,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI never give up, I keep going. Nobody likes a quitter.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Steven](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/REG-L-AdaptiveBike-01.jpg\")
Steven McLaughlin in his race car before suffering a broken neck in a workplace accident in 2023. (Courtesy of Steven McLaughlin)<\/p>\n
After stints in Reading Hospital and Reading Hospital Rehabilitation at Wyomissing, Steven was transferred to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Ga., one of the leading facilities in the U.S. for brain and spinal cord injuries. Steven and Amanda would live there for five months.<\/p>\n
Slowly, he made improvements.<\/p>\n
Today, Steven has limited use of his arms and legs but no feeling in them or anything from his midchest down.<\/p>\n
Most of the time he gets around with the help of powered wheelchairs. He has a normal one as well as a heavy-duty one that allows him to traverse tougher terrain like in the woods or at the beach.<\/p>\n
![\"Steven](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/REG-L-AdaptiveBike-03.jpg\")
Steven McLaughlin with his race car before suffering a broken neck in a workplace accident in 2023. (Courtesy of Steven McLaughlin)<\/p>\n
He also has a specialized walker that allows him, for brief periods, to walk.<\/p>\n
But Steven wanted more. He wanted freedom, he wanted to be able to just get outside and go.<\/p>\n
He wanted a bit of that speed back.<\/p>\n
The answer, he hopes, in an adaptive bicycle.<\/p>\n
Steven received a specialized bike back in November. It was provided with the help of a $4,000 grant from the Kelly Bush Foundation, $4,000 from IMABLE and $4,000 from a donation the Limerick Generating Station gave to IMABLE.<\/p>\n
It has power assist that helps Steven pedal, a nine-speed electric shifter and a recumbent seat, along with other special bells and whistles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has everything,\u201d said Steven, cracking a rare smile.<\/p>\n
So far, Steven, whose injuries have left him unable to tolerate cold weather, hasn\u2019t been able to get the bike out on the road. Instead, it\u2019s set up on a trainer in his basement.<\/p>\n
He uses it as part of his rehab work most nights, dreaming of being able to get it on the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit of independence,\u201d Steven said. \u201cI can just go. It\u2019s me powering it, it\u2019s me turning, it\u2019s me shifting.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Steven](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/REG-L-AdaptiveBike-04.jpg\")
Steven McLaughlin, center, with Jerry Katz, owner of Katzy’s Mobile Tire Service and sponsor of McLaughlin’s race car, and Dylan Cordier, who has taken over driving McLaughlin’s race car since a 2023 workplace accident left McLaughlin paralyzed. (Courtesy of Steven McLaughlin)<\/p>\n
Steven said he\u2019s over pedaling while staring at the white walls of his basement, and can\u2019t wait until the weather turns and he can enjoy some better scenery.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also itching to see what it\u2019s capable of.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last time I went fast was the Friday before the accident at the race track,\u201d he said. \u201cMaybe I can get some speed with bike.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For most of the first four decades of his life, Steven McLaughlin lived in high gear. The Blandon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,182,139,28,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-135411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}