Breaking out of the minivan

About a decade ago, Steve Kitchin was riding in a colleague’s Cadillac during a North Carolina business trip. The leisurely cruise took a turn for the worse when the car slid off the road and crashed into a tree. Kitchin suffered a spinal cord injury, paralyzing him from the waist down.

Kitchin said he considered himself very active and was disappointed after he was diagnosed.

“It’s emasculating,” he said. “I can’t protect my wife, I can’t protect my kids. If someone takes off with one of them, what can I do?”

Kitchin said he was caught off-guard when he learned the only handicap-compatible vehicle he could operate was a minivan, which he found degrading and unfit for Indiana weather.

“I was happy I was mobile, but I really wanted something that could get me around in weather,” Kitchin said. “I’m not a soccer mom.”

Early last year, Kitchin needed to buy a new car, but he didn’t want another minivan. He asked some friends if they could help him design a handicap-accessible lift for a pickup truck.

Kitchin’s family was skeptical but supportive when they heard his plans.

“When he came up with this idea I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s going to happen,’” Kitchin’s daughter, Kylie, said sarcastically. “A few months later, here he is driving around in his truck,” she added earnestly. “It’s exciting.”

Last fall, Kylie, an IU freshman, called her dad after her car broke down in Bloomington. Kylie said he seemed happy to make the long drive from Fort Wayne.

The trip was the first time Kitchin used the truck, and he refers to it as his “maiden voyage.”

Kitchin said he remembers he couldn’t stop smiling.

“It was fun to drive again,” he said. “It was like I had part of my life back.”

When winter came around, Kitchin decided it was time to turn his invention into a business, so he paid a visit to Fort Wayne car dealer and IU alumnus Tom Kelley.

Kelley said he was excited to work with Kitchin.

“Here’s a guy in a wheelchair who decided to not only do something with his life, but he’s making jobs and bringing enjoyment to thousands of people,” Kelley said. “It really just warms your heart.”

Kelley said he often receives letters from people asking about the project.

Ride-Away, one of the country’s largest handicap-accessible car dealers, has already placed an order of 15 trucks per month.

Both Kelley and Kitchin said they think this might only be the beginning.

“Currently, he has close to nine employees, but in the near future that could go as high as 30 to 40,” Kelley said of Kitchin’s business. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see the number of employees get into the hundreds.”

More than 10,000 people in the U.S. suffer spinal cord injuries a year, and 82 percent are males between the ages of 18 and 25, Kitchin said. Each year, 40,000 wheelchair-accessible minivans are sold.

“Of all the guys I’ve talked to, none of them have wanted to drive a minivan,” Kitchin said.

Kitchin said he just wants to make people in his situation smile.

“I’m proud of the feeling I get when driving this car and knowing I can give that feeling to a bunch of people given a pretty tough blow,” Kitchin said.