In a two-ton example of irony — Cory Brown was on his way to get a tattoo that represented being on the right path in life when he was struck by a car.

Brown, 34, was traveling down Franklin Street, near Cheeseman Park, on the morning of Oct. 24, riding an electric unicycle he had fallen in love with five years prior. As he crossed an intersection, he was struck by a car, leaving him with a plethora of injuries from a fractured pelvis to a dislocated shoulder, lacerated spleen and damaged kidneys, among others.

“I looked over just moments before the vehicle hit me, just long enough to process that my day was about to go really bad,” Brown chuckled, still in high spirits despite the laundry list of injuries and nearly six months of physical therapy still left ahead of him.

“It was immediately apparent that I had done some damage,” Brown added.

Both the driver and a group of passersby stopped to call the ambulance. A police officer even stopped to tell Brown, who was writhing on the ground, that he would receive a citation for running the stop sign, according to Brown. 

The Denver Gazette asked the Denver Police Department to provide details about the crash, but as of press time had not received any additional information.

While Brown admitted he may have run the stop sign, he’s still unsure. He had not commuted down that area often and said he doesn’t remember seeing one — but none of that matters to him.

What matters is that Brown is alive, isn’t paralyzed and that the driver is okay, he added. 

Though his injuries run the gamut, Brown noted that they could have been significantly worse if he wasn’t wearing his protective gear that he has always worn since picking up the unicycle in 2019. 

Brown never rides without a full-face-covering helmet, wrist guards and knee pads that stretch to his ankles. And now, following the injury that placed him in the hospital for a week, he plans on wearing a full motorcycle jacket.

Oh, yes. The man facing two months before he can walk and six months before he can fully use his arm, doesn’t plan to stop his electric unicycle adventures.

The love started as a means of transportation after Brown spent his first two years in Denver on public transit.

In 2020, he started earning money by performing a juggling routine at stoplights. But soon after, he decided to add a new-age spin on a circus classic — juggling on an electric unicycle.

Brown eventually had to ditch the juggling for a full-time job, but he kept the one-wheeled scooter as a means of transportation and will continue to do so after his recovery.

According to a study from the University of Colorado School of Medicine, 2,424 patients were identified with e-scooter injuries (of any severity) between January 1, 2020, and November 1, 2023 in Denver.

In comparison: Denver reported 424 car crashes with serious injuries in 2023 alone.  

“Life is dangerous,” Brown said in defense to the electric scooters and unicycles that are now seen as modes of a transportation across the metro. “You can try to avoid it as much as you want, but at the end of the day, you could be standing on the curb and get taken out by a driver that’s impaired or doing something they aren’t supposed to do. There’s no way to guarantee your safety.”

Brown added that he can take the unicycle on bike paths and trails, as well, often putting him far away from vehicular traffic — highlighting that the electric unicycles may not be as outright dangerous as they appear.

“All things considered, it’s going to be a crappy few months, but I’m going to be able to recover,” Brown said. “I’m going to be able to get back to doing things I enjoy. I’m grateful for that.”

The issue right now, though, is Brown’s inability to work. Brown is worried about reinjuring himself trying to work to pay bills. With the list of injuries, he should not be moving for months.

He started a GoFundMe Sunday to help with the bills. It reached over $2,000 in two days.

“It’s weird. You never want to see yourself on this side of it,” Brown said of the GoFundMe. “It’s almost surreal. A lot of those donations have come from people I don’t know directly. It’s really awesome to see the generosity of people. People really do want to help each other.” 

All in all, Brown said the lesson here is that everyone should wear protective gear when riding scooters, bikes, unicycles and so on. 

“If I had not been wearing my gear, this would have been way, way worse,” he said. “I will continue to ride with safety equipment. Probably even more.”

And, yes, Brown is still going to get that “on the right path” tattoo. The crash was maybe just a temporary nudge off the path.