Also the accident took place after dark. Based on personal experience, people in wheelchairs and mobility scooters are difficult to see at night. I nearly hit a woman in a mobility scooter once. She came riding up the shoulder on my right side. I was turning right and I checked my 3:00 position, but her head was below the level of the mirror. Had my passenger not noticed her, I would have rolled right over her when I made my turn. She cruised right on past me and straight across the busy intersection, a blot of dark shadow on a dark road in a dark night. It was scary.
—Had my passenger not noticed her, I would have rolled right over her when I made my turn. She cruised right on past me and straight across the busy intersection, a blot of dark shadow on a dark road in a dark night. It was scary.—
Now imagine that you were in an H2 Hummer and you had no passenger, and there were a lot of potholes. I can imagine many people not even knowing they hit something.
Some of us are so accutely aware and living “in the moment” when we drive that we feel every slight bump or groove, but many people are oblivious. It’s just a fact of life that I’ve seen played out way too much. I really can imagine someone grazing off this lady and her wheelchair and going home none the wiser. Unlikely? You bet. Possible? Absolutely.
All that said, based on where this happened I think that odds are it was a hit and run, at least for the first car.
Do you know how many bicyclists get killed that way? The other trick for bicyclists is to drive on the left side of the road, so they can see on coming traffic. Problem is, they surprise motorists at intersections. I almost hit a chubby little female cyclist like that once.
I think those people should be required to have flags, reflective material and bright blinking lights so we can see them during the day and especially at night.
Hell, I’d even be willing to subsidize them with a .000001% tax to install them.
(can’t believe I actually agreed to that but there it is. They really bug me that go out and expect us to see them. They are below eyesight and many times I thought they were a Mailbox)