Brampton woman thrives in sports car documentary after motorcycle accident
Published May 12, 2023 at 11:55 am
A Brampton woman who lost her leg in a motorcycle crash is featured in a sports car documentary now filming in Mississauga and Toronto.
Flat 6ix is about the local sports car, supercar and exotic car clubs and community in the GTA from filmmaker and Porsche enthusiast James Hergott.
“The title is a play on words, serving as both the type of engine in the popular Porsche 911 and the 6ix as a reference to the City of Toronto, as made popular by musical artist Drake,” says Hergott.
The film features sports car enthusiasts including Brampton resident Rouzalin (listed as Roz Hakim in the film).
Although she used to race sports cars, Rouzalin hasn’t done any racing since she lost her left leg above the knee in a motorcycle crash in late August 2021. She will race a Mclaren Artura in the film.
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“I’ll actually be racing for the very first time since my accident in an epic scene at the end of the movie, there’s a race set up and that’ll be my come back to my passion of racing,” she tells inBrampton.
Rouzalin was riding her Kawasaki Ninja returning home from her gym in Oakville, a route she had ridden many times before, on Highway 403 at the Highway 410 connection in Brampton when she collided with a median.
She says another vehicle was exiting at the same time and it threw her off track.
“I tried to straighten out and I came head-on into the median,” she says.
She was thrown from the bike and remembers many people around her as she lay on the road. A car blocked the way so no one would hit her while they waited for emergency crews to arrive.
She was awake and bystanders were telling her not to look down. She knew something was wrong with her leg.
“My body was just on fire,” she says. “My leg was acidic. Like, it was so hot — it’s indescribable. And my body, my whole the rest of my body was just like, tingling with this sensation that I’ve never felt before.”
She remembered the paramedics coming and she pleaded with them: “Just please save my leg.”
Later, when her sister came to the hospital, Rouzalin could see on her face that it was bad.
“When she cries, it’s bad. And so she cried a lot.”
Rouzalin was sent to St. John’s Rehab in Sunnybrook Hospital and on a floor of amputees, the reality sunk in.
“I don’t know how I survived my emotional mind because it was really, really dark, depressing.”
She kept thinking about how her life had changed in minutes and how it could have been different.
“You drive yourself crazy thinking, if I didn’t go to the gym today, if I ran out of gas, if I took a different route, if the car didn’t want to get off the exit, if I even was a five kilometres difference in speed, whether it be lower or higher, I wouldn’t be next to him,” she says. “There are just so many variables and factors that you play in your mind.”
Once she got home, there were more challenges, and the realization that her life had changed. She was a very independent person, a fitness fanatic, she enjoyed running and travelling solo but now the stairs in her home were a frightening obstacle.
But slowly, she has been able to regain some of her previous life.
She pushed herself hard to compete in fitness competitions.
“I needed something to get my sanity back, I needed a goal,” she says.
She made it to nationals and did three back-to-back competitions.
She successfully completed the CN Tower Climb this April — 44 floors and 1,776 steps and hopes to raise funds for amputee mental health awareness for children and families through a GoFundMe.
There are still setbacks — on a recent trip to Mexico she couldn’t swim and only watched people in the pool.
“You have these days and you’re up and down, like you’re all over the place.”
Through the fitness competitions, she met Hergott who is a bodybuilder and produced the Radical Body Transformations documentary series.
She has done some modelling and small acting gigs but no feature films. Rouzlin’s story in Flat 6ix will be about her coming back to racing cars.
“Since I used to race them, my story is kind of, like he (Hergott) says, the resurrection.”
Flat 6ix will also show aspects such as rallies, meet-ups, drives, racing and the individuals and passion behind it.
Filming is expected to continue through the summer.
For more information about the film, visit flat6ixmovie.com.
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