Scott Allen Lockard is a man who likes to live to the fullest. When he isn’t busy, Lockard enjoys simple hobbies like listening to music, staying out of the house, hanging out in the garage, playing his drums and karaoke.
In June 2024, Lockard was heading to work on his motorcycle. “I came around a blind curve, and swerved to miss a little doe in the road. I didn’t want to hit it, but I didn’t want to cross the yellow line either. I was doing about 61 MPH. After I let off the throttle, I was swerving side to side really bad. By the time I got my balance back, I was going about 51 MPH when I hit a buck. There’s no chance I could bail out. Everything ran through my head, including that deer. Thank God I was wearing a helmet. I was thrown off the back of the motorcycle, and into the guardrail. It wrapped or twisted my neck around the guardrail.”
He doesn’t remember anything else after that. A driver who had been behind him called 911. “She called the sheriff, who I had known all my life,” Lockard said. “He got me into an ambulance, and they moved me to Elizabethtown, to Hardin County Memorial Hospital. From there, I was airlifted to UofL Hospital in Louisville. I still hate going down that road. I’ll look down, or look to the other side. There’s no way I’m not going through that area, but even then, I still think about it. I think about it when I wake up, I think about it before I go to sleep. You get down about it, but at the same time you still get happy about it, because you survived. That’s a blessing.”
In total, Lockard sustained a head wound, broken neck, broken L3, L4, and L5, a broken sternum, neurologically damaged hands, and required a rod in his C1 and C2 vertebrae.
Lockard’s sense of humor never left him throughout the experience. “The only helicopter ride I’ve ever gotten to take in my life, and I was completely passed out.”
“I guess the hardest part for me was waking up after the wreck, afraid I wouldn’t be able to walk or do anything anymore. I was scared to death. I had to relearn how to put on a shirt, how to take a bath. My family helped me of course, which was nice, but it was also super depressing at times. I think they gave me more willpower to get up and go do something. I definitely had a dark moment, when I didn’t want to get out of the room, and there are still days like that sometimes, but then I overdo it, and hurt myself all over again. But I don’t want to quit trying, I don’t want to give up. I don’t believe that’s the way anyone should be. If you give up, you might as well go to the nursing home. Whatever I can do, I still try to do; sometimes I push myself too much, but other times I feel like I don’t push enough. If it’s meant to happen, it’s meant to happen, and we can’t be mad about it. There’s a reason for everything, I truly believe that. I’ll find out one day what my reason for living was, but surviving gives me more of a reason to live. I get aggravated, but I don’t let it stop me.”
Lockard recalled how difficult it was to take the first steps. “It was hard, very hard at first,” he said. “Then one day the nurse came in and suggested I try the stairs, if I was ready. I told her I’d love to and I was able to get down and back up with some help. The second day, I was able to get almost halfway back up the stairs by myself. Just five days later I was walking all up and down that place. I felt a ton of pride because I pushed myself, and had my family, and the nurses and patients—even they were clapping and excited for me. Every time we’d go down from the ninth floor, I’d see these photos and stories of other survivors, and think, ‘Man, my situation isn’t all that bad. I’d love to do something like that’…so here we are. It was just amazing to see that, and I wanted to be one of those people, I wanted to share my story.”
In total, Lockard only spent about 2 weeks in the hospital. Eventually Lockard started outpatient therapy.
Through 2024 and into winter 2025, Lockard started to turn the page on his experience. “I was tired of having to ask someone to do something for me, needing help getting in and out of the bathtub, using the bathroom—everything. I couldn’t hold my own drink. I just got tired of laying around in bed. That was a lot of stress on my whole family, especially my kids at their age. But they all stepped up to the plate. I still get aggravated sometimes, even trying to do simple things like swinging a hammer, throwing a basketball looks like tossing a yo-yo. All I can do about it anymore is just laugh through it.”
“All I can do is thank the Lord, my family, the nurses at UofL Health, my friends, just everyone who was there for me. Even friends I thought would be the last to be there for me were the first to step up. I learned a lot about my own determination, my own willpower, my ability to not give up.”
His wife, Crystal, fondly remembers how he tried to keep the UofL Health team laughing throughout his stay. “He told the nurses, moments before his accident, the only thing he could think was, ‘Oh deer.’ Then he told them all, ‘The cheapest meat you can find is deer meat. It’s only about a buck.’”
Lockard shared that he cried when leaving the hospital. He didn’t want to leave the people there who felt like family.
“I don’t think there’s a hospital like it anywhere else in the world. They didn’t have to treat me as good as they did…but they did, time and time again.”
Telling his story is important for him. “I want to be able to push someone else, let them know this might slow someone down for a little, but it won’t put a hold on your whole life. You realize, after a while, how lucky you are. You learn to not take things for granted; even using your hands or going for a walk.”
Looking ahead, Lockard wants to keep pushing harder, not just for himself, but for everybody that has been there for him. “I want to keep pushing for me, and everyone who has been beside me, and I want to tell everyone not to lose hope. Things happen for a reason, so don’t deny what happened. You can’t take it back, all you can do is move forward and make it better. I believe I’ll be better than I was before, in one way, shape, or form. I won’t stop. It’ll take every day, for as long as it takes. What I thought was a bad experience has been more good than bad, and it taught me a lot that I just didn’t know before. Thank God that you’re here, and don’t ever lose hope.”
Lockard concluded his story with a final joke. “Why was the motorcycle sitting on the side of the road? It was two-tired.”
