‘I had a guardian angel over me’: Sarnia man recounts harrowing ordeal after being run over by car

A man who was run over by an SUV in Sarnia that was caught on video speaks to CTV’s Bryan Bicknell about his ordeal.

Steve Marche looks beaten, battered and bruised, as if he had been run over by a car.

That’s because he was, in fact, run over by a car.

His skin is black, blue and red in places with bruises and cuts visible on his face, his right arm, his chest, his legs and his head.

“Some of this stuff just started peeling a couple days ago,” said the 40-year-old Sarnia, Ont., man, pointing to red gashes and cuts on his face.

“I’m going to guess this is the pole … where [the car] hit me. Marks here. I got [staples] up in my forehead. I think I got four or five of them in my head. They had to glue my eyebrow back together,” he explained, while pointing to his many wounds.

The father of three is worse for wear, but lucky to be walking and talking, he acknowledged.

“I guess I was just lucky, and I had a guardian angel over me,” he said.

Marche tells CTV News he had gotten into an argument with a close friend.

Then, on Saturday, just after midnight, Sarnia police say a vehicle drove into Marche’s Afton Drive townhouse complex and struck an e-bike. Marche’s e-bike had been parked in front of his home.

Video released by Sarnia police shows the accused get out of his vehicle and approach Marche’s home with a pipe in his hand before leaving the scene.

The same day, around 1:45 p.m., the suspect is alleged to have returned in his car. An altercation ensued, and that’s when Marche said he was run over by his friend.

A blurred video from Sarnia police appears to show the driver of a red Mitsubishi SUV reversing aggressively toward the victim, striking him, running over him, stopping, then moving forward and running him over again — the driver then fled the area.

Marche said, somehow, he had fallen between the curb and a pole in the lawn, so the full weight of the vehicle never came down on him.

“Luckily, if it wasn’t for the pole and the curb saving my life, I wouldn’t be here right now, I’d be dead because of this guy. He ran over me three times,” he explained.

A 21-year-old Sarnia man is facing several charges.

• Attempted murder
• Dangerous operation of a conveyance
• Mischief under $5,000
• Fail to comply with release order

The police investigation continues into this dispute between former good friends – which turned violent, while the suspect remains in custody and the victim and his family now deal with the trauma.

Marche said none of his injuries is serious, and he is recovering at home.

“I felt like I was dying. I felt like I was going to lose my family, my kids. I don’t even know what was going through this guy’s mind,” he said, while holding back tears.