Posted on 08/05/2008 2:19:14 PM PDT by buccaneer81
Man hit by police cruiser was tying shoe, friends say Tuesday, August 5, 2008 3:05 AM By Amanda Dolasinski THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
A man who was killed early Sunday when he was run over by a Minerva Park police cruiser traveled frequently between Columbus and West Virginia, where he lived, his father said yesterday.
Mehrdad Pourfarhadi said his son Boback was walking with three friends from one apartment complex to another across the street when he was struck at 3:30 a.m. on Westerville Road, just south of Minerva Lake Road.
Columbus police said the 25-year-old Boback Pourfarhadi fell and was lying in the roadway when Minerva Park Officer Jason Gross, who was driving south on Westerville Road, ran over him.
But the friends -- two women and a man -- told the elder Pourfarhadi that Boback had bent over to tie his shoelace and that they were waving at the officer to slow down because they thought he was speeding, he said.
"My wife called me at 4:30 in the morning and said somebody called and said Bobby's been in an accident," Mr. Pourfarhadi said yesterday from his home in West Virginia. "The detective came and told her that he was gone, he was dead and it happened in a car accident. They never told her that it was a cop involved."
Gross, 34, was traveling at the speed limit, which is 45 mph, and didn't have time to stop, said Jim Gilbert, president of the police union, Capital City Lodge No. 9 of the Fraternal Order of Police.
"This accident occurred within the officer's lane of travel," Gilbert said. "This was not at an area where the pedestrian had the right of way."
The eastern border of the village of Minerva Park abuts the west side of Westerville Road between Minerva Lake Road and Rt. 161.
As paramedics were covering Boback Pourfarhadi with a sheet after determining that he had died, one of his friends attempted to interfere, and a Columbus police officer shocked him with a Taser, police spokeswoman Amanda Ford said.
Ford said she could not immediately release the name of the officer or the person who was shocked.
Boback Pourfarhadi was in Columbus to help his mother move from her condo, which she had just sold, Mr. Pourfarhadi said. He owned Tech One, a Charleston, W.Va., company that sells auto-body parts, his father said.
adolasinski@dispatch.com
/s
Lesson to be learned here....if you happen to be walking on a road @ 3 am and your shoe needs tying, please go off road with that activity.......
Lesson to be learned here....if you happen to be walking on a road @ 3 am and your shoe needs tying, please go off road with that activity.......
Thank you Lord for strict parents!
That is the best story they could come up with?
If they had time to wave their arms, why didn't their friend have time to get up from tying his shoe and get off of the road?
I do however, believe that it up to the driver to drive with such caution that they are able to stop in time to avoid hitting something or someone stopped on the road.
The officer won't likely face criminal charges, nor should a civilian in such circumstances. However, since no one appears to be saying the guy jumped out on the road in front of him, there still may be justification for a civil case.
Does the cruiser have a dash-cam? Or was it broken that night?
Most dash cams are not turned on until the lights and siren are activated.
Roger that.
Excellent question.
Maybe the friends were on the side of the road waving their arms, thus distracting the officers attention from the fellow in the middle of the road?
It could still distract you enough to throw off your reaction time, and cause rather than prevent an accident if there wasn't a lot of time to react. It depends a lot on the exact circumstances.
We don't know much about what happened, and a lot of what we do know is coming from witnesses that don't sound very credible in this case.
Okay, I call bullsh** on in this statement by the friends. Why would you 'wave' at an oncoming car at 3am? If you're stranded at the roadside, perhaps, sure, but if your buddy is simply hunched over tying his shoe? And waving at a car at 3am to slow down? And that car is a police car? I can tell you this, when you stand on a painted line of the shoulder, just about any car approaching would appear to be speeding.
I am familiar with this stretch of road and I think it's either a 45mph or 50mph zone. It's certainly not a 25mph zone.
Boback.......
to bad it wasn’t Barack.....
Anybody who knows anything about the Columbus area knows that because of the wacky city limits boundaries, police and fire units often have to pass through other areas. When I lived in Hilliard, the Hilliard PD had to go through Columbus to get to my subdivision. So don't use that against the cop.
The rest of your "argument" is hearsay. I'm sure the victim's family will find a sleazy ambulance chaser to run the officer through the ringer. Bet you're all looking forward to that.
Bottom line...your friend would still be alive if he hadn't exercised the judgement of a two year old by stopping in the middle of the street to tie his shoe.
but your insinuation that the police are less than truthful is noted. thanks for your input.
on this forum we back up our talk when it comes to stuff of this magnitude.
by your screenname it's obvious you are personally affected by this accident. sorry for that.
If true, then the witnesses and victim were morons. Who ties their shoe in the middle of the road? Who believe such as story? Either we are dealing with total idiots or it is a setup for a lawsuit. I have forgotten the names and details, but there was a horrible case where a father pushed his little child in front of a car wanting to file a lawsuit.
Could the victim have been dead before being hit? Something smells.
Possibly brain dead from too much malt liquor.
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