Actor, racer and avid track day rider Dean McDermott, 43, suffered a collapsed lung when he crashed June 29 while off-road riding north of Los Angeles, California. McDermott, who stars with his wife and fellow actor Tori Spelling in the Oxygen Network’s reality show Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood, was riding with two friends on a fire road in the Rowher Flats Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) recreational area when the incident happened. “We were going to go trail riding,” McDermott told Roadracingworld.com via cell phone from his hospital room Tuesday afternoon. “I had just bought a ’06 Kawasaki KX450F. It was my first time taking the bike out. “We were on a fire road. We were going to the trails. We weren’t even going fast. We were only going 25-30 mph, just putting along. Then my friend who was in front of me stops. I grabbed some front brake, and the bike started to rev really high and just took off on me. I stood on the back brake and the front brake, and it was going right through the brakes. It wasn’t stopping. “And it all happened so fast, because I was 10 feet behind my buddy. Boom! I hit him. I guess I slammed my chest into the [handle] bars before I went over the bars and landed on my right side. “After the dust cleared, all I can remember was still gasping for air. I couldn’t breath and I couldn’t move. From the pain, I thought I had broken both rib cages. I thought I broke my right shoulder. It was just so much pain.” One of McDermott’s friends rode back to their truck and drove up the fire road to collect the downed rider and start the long, painful and bloody ride to Providence Tarzana Medical Center, in Tarzana, California. “I landed on a rock on my right side, so I was leaking [blood] pretty good. I filled up the map pocket in his door with blood,” said McDermott. “I knew there was a hospital right down the street from my house. I thought I would go to that one so I would be close to my family, because I knew I was in for a stay. “People were amazed that I didn’t break any bones. I credit my Alpinestars riding gear. But I hit so hard that it forced all of the air out of my lung and it just collapsed. It didn’t get punctured. So they knocked me out and put a chest tube in, and when I woke up I was in the Intensive Care Unit.” McDermott said he also received stitches to close a deep wound on his right hip. He also later developed a blood infection due to a catheter getting stuck during removal, but this did not prolong his stay, he said. “When you take a hit that hard and it collapses your lung it affects your heart,” said McDermott. “Your heart takes some damage, as well. They wanted to keep an eye on my heart, so they monitored my heart 24 hours a day.” McDermott expected to be discharged from the hospital Tuesday. He said he will continue his recovery at home, and contrary to what has been reported elsewhere, McDermott’s accident will not result in him giving up riding motorcycles. “I am a motorcyclist and I am a racer,” said McDermott, who has raced with WERA West over the past two seasons. “It is in my blood, and it will always be in my blood and in my life. I will always be an advocate for motorcycling and motorcycle safety. I love the people and I love the sport of motorcycle racing. I think it’s a great sport. It will always be in my life, and I always be a part of it. “I promised my wife I wouldn’t ride dirt bikes anymore or race anymore, but I will stick to my track days, my pleasure [rides] and my charity work. I have the L.A. Ride for Autism coming up [August 7, www.rideforautism.com].” McDermott added that his injury and recovery will not seriously affect his acting schedule, as Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood is not currently in production and he and his wife just finished a pilot for a new show on Oxygen called Tori & Dean: Weddings.