Posted on 12/06/2005 6:48:03 AM PST by southernnorthcarolina
WASHINGTON - A 73-year-old man who received a $5 jaywalking ticket after he was struck by a car later died from his injuries, police said Monday.
Charles Atherton, a former secretary of the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts that advises the government on architecture and design in official Washington, was hit Thursday while crossing busy Connecticut Avenue. He died Saturday night at George Washington University Hospital.
Although witnesses said he was badly injured and unresponsive at the scene, police issued him the ticket. His family found it with his belongings when they went to the hospital.
"We knew it was a serious injury, but we didn't know it was life-threatening," police Capt. Willie Smith told The Washington Post in a story for Tuesday editions. He said officers would not have issued the ticket "if we knew he was going to die."
Police said they determined Atherton was at fault when he was hit by a car driven by a 31-year-old woman.
Atherton was secretary of the presidentially appointed commission for 40 years and reviewed countless proposed monuments and projects in the capital, including the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the National World War II Memorial.
It is DC. The most important thing is that nobody had a gun.
"To protect and serve tickets, to the seriously injured, but not to the dying."
Will The State sue his estate for the ticket? Once a ticket is issued, it can't be un-written.
I'll bet they'll issue a warrant for his arrest when he doesn't show up for the court date!
I'm sure some overly anal freepers will agree that giving the ticket was proper if he broke the law.
I don't think he should pay it.
I'm sure it's important to the woman who was driving the car.
Surprised they didn't 'taze' him while he was resisting arrest
and uncooperative since he 'refused' to sign his ticket for jay walking.
It's DC. If Mr. Atherton would have been high on crack the mayor would have had the citation dismissed.
As evidenced by the ticket. Good for the cop. May have saved the poor unsuspecting driver a lifetime of screwed up insurance premiums.
Certainly, but they could have just put it in the report.
You can blame trial lawyers for this.
The ticket was issued for liability purposes.
Chuck Norris wouldn't have died... (but the car would)
If the man violated the law, the ticket was appropriate in this circumstance. The man was struck by a vehicle and the citation, placing blame on the deceased will prevent (probably) or at least severely limit the option to sue the driver by the family of the deceased.
"Police said they determined Atherton was at fault when he was hit by a car driven by a 31-year-old woman."
"As evidenced by the ticket. Good for the cop. May have saved the poor unsuspecting driver a lifetime of screwed up insurance premiums."
That is why they issued the ticket. Handing it to him at the scene seems grotesque now that he is dead, however I don't know his condition at the time. Fault has to be determined timely, tickets are not written 2 days after the event.
Prayers for this man and his family. My grandfather crossed a busy road, was hit by a car and died about 20 years ago in PA. It was his fault - determined by the State Trooper. Don't know if my grandfather was issued a jaywalking ticket, but he was unresponsive on scene. The woman who hit him was devastated. Personally a ticket would not have mattered either way - he died and it was horrible.
Isn't that the truth.
Boy, I'll tell yah, the DC government couldn't find its butt with both hands. Good God, but they are so stupid. So very, very stupid.
I thought citations were routinely written at accident sites (running a stop sign/traffic signal, illegal lane change, etc.)
I imagine they are important to insurance companies and juries if there are damages and injuries.
Its probably significant to the driver to know he/she wasn't entirely at fault in this sad accident.
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