Posted on 08/18/2015 12:12:42 AM PDT by VeniVidiVici
The Batmobile pulled into a gas station Sunday night and, as usual, the children who spotted it gawked.
Lenny B. Robinson was used to that. The Maryland man, better known as the Route 29 Batman, had for years dressed as the Caped Crusader and driven his custom-made car to deliver moments of happiness and distraction to hundreds of sick children at area hospitals.
His costume stored in the Batmobile but his alter ego never entirely switched off, Robinson gave the kids at the gas station some superhero paraphernalia before driving off.
Minutes later, Robinson pulled over with engine trouble on an unlit stretch of Interstate 70 near Hagerstown, Md., police said. The people he had just met parked behind him, turning their emergency lights on.
His car was stopped in the median but still “partially in the fast lane” when he got out to check the engine, according to state police. Around 10:30 p.m., a Toyota Camry slammed into the Batmobile, propelling the steel-framed hunk of black metal into his body. Robinson, 51, died at the scene.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
So sad. But why didn’t he pull over to the right? RIP to a good guy.
This is literally close to home.
People drive that stretch like maniacs, not paying attention.
The only silver lining is that it wasn’t George Clooney. </sarc></sarc>. Alright, fine—bad taste.
Might have been total engine failure, too sudden to get momentum to the other side.
That stretch has wide shoulders on both sides and a large expanse of level grass bordering tree-filled median.
Once, in my HS boyfriend’s parents’ car, coming down PA RT 30, the electrical system dramatically failed.
The car just *stopped* and we were on a level spot and barely managed to drift off of the roadway.
If he was where I think he was, the uphill grade would have precluded coasting to the right side.
Guess this was him and his car:
http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/ht_batman_pull_over_hp_120403_wmain.jpg
Friend of mine apparently hit a car left in the road. I’ll never know how the car failed - don’t know all the details though.
Big SUV he was in - but he once remarked to me he didn’t like to wear his seatbelt when I remarked he should. Anyways, we lost him, Vietnam veteran too, a couple of years ago.
Darn shame, it was.
Oh, man.
So sorry!
Hubby fusses like a toddler when I insist he belts up.
He’s getting better about it but you’d still think I was asking him to gouge out an eye.
:\
Yeah, we were going to dinner in the huge SUV when I told him that, too. It was built like a freight train.
I saw him a few days before. Actually there’s a side story to that - FReepmail.
Anyways, both him and the SUV are gone, long done.
Really hit me rough the day I found out about it.
I recently started driving regularly between Hancock and Hagerstown. Not sure where this guy was when he got hit. If he was where all those trees are it is pretty dark and desolate.
A good guy, living a very helpful dream.
(And these beside-the-freeway accidents happen much too often.)
We drive my Yukon and I *still* insist on belts for even “just a short trip”.
In fact, I don’t even leave the driveway without mine.
Me neither. I don’t have and can longer afford an SUV anyways. But I would do what you’re doing. All the time, even before leaving the driveway.
They said he stopped at the gas station, which is the Big Pool exit and went on, east bound.
Since the local byline states Big Pool, it had to be the area between the exit and the Boyd Road overpass, not far away.
It *is* dark, desolate, full of deer crossing and a place where lots of stuff happens.
I don’t drive that stretch on the way home, if I can possibly avoid it.
The deer alone make it treacherous and it’s not odd to see an entire herd splattered from one side of the road to the other.
The east bound exit ramp from RT 56 at Big Pool has the right side guard totally crushed *on the exit*.
I cannot wrap my head around *how* that even happened.
You be careful out here.
People drive like psychos because they seem to believe they’re in the middle of nowhere.
It’s become an unconscious habit, by now.
I get in and my arm just automatically reaches for the belt.
Sometimes, he’ll go in a store without me and 20 minutes later, I realize I’m sitting in the AutoZone parking lot, still belted in.
I put mine on, many times, for decades without getting the keys out of my pocket first, or having put them in my pockets and then putting the belt on.
Then, have to dig them out and/or take the seat belt off first only to put it on again after I get the keys.
If he is ever ejected from a vehicle and manages to survive (lots of folks do not!) he will wear them religiously.
Tell him he’s more than welcome to ask me how I know this.
Ah. Thanks. I missed the Big Pool ref. That’s pretty desolate alright.
LOL
Me too.
And considering I have a deer antler on my keychain, it can be a drag.
I hope this link works:
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