I was on my mid morning walk yesterday. I was walking south on the right hand side of the street (ie. walking with traffic, not facing it) and looking to my right as I was about to turn right at an intersection. So I didn’t see the start of what happened. I heard a big crunch to my left and when I whipped around I saw a Scion rolling sideways at least two whole revolutions before coming to rest on its roof. The light had been red for southbound traffic as I walked up so the traffic had been stopped. I don’t know if it had just turned green or not. But every car at the southbound road stayed still as I jogged carefully out to the Scion.
The lady inside was yelling for help. I pulled on the door which was not latched anymore and it started opening but I was having trouble opening it while helping the lady. Luckily another guy came running up and was able to give it a good yank with both hands and wrench it free.
The lady seemed to be OK in that she could walk and talk. I helped her over to the grass on the curb. At that point I could see another car, a sedan with the left front tire flat and the wheel bent up and the left fender/headlight area smashed. It didn’t look like that big of an impact. And the crunch of the crash had not sounded that bad, either. But man that Scion had rolled. The other guy who helped open the door came over and asked if there was anyone else in the car and she said no and then he went off to the sedan. So I held this lady’s hand and listened to her crying and her talking about needing her phone which was still in the car. I said I’d get it for her. So when the other guy came back, I went and got her purse and wallet out of the car but didn’t find the phone. Frankly, I was nervous about being in the car, afraid it would get hit again by a rubbernecker while I was in it.
I sat with her and told her that she looked OK and held her hand some more for the few minutes until the cops and EMS got there. Since I didn’t see the accident, I wasn’t much help in that regard but a third guy who witnessed it from the car behind the sedan was able to help the cops.
I made sure the lady had her purse and wallet after the EMTs helped her onto the gurney. After that, there wasn’t much to do. So I headed back to my office.
I’d say the whole episode from the crash to my leaving was about 10 minutes. it was that quick. I wish I could do more, but since there was no first aid needed, I’m not sure what else I could have done.
I don’t envy how sore she probably is right now even if there were no injuries.
Let me see if I have this straight. You were walking southbound, looking to the right at the intersection. A southbound Scion was hit by a sedan. The sedan had damage to its left quarter.
If the damage was to the sedan’s left, does that mean he was driving eastbound?
If the collision was such that the Scion rolled and the sedan’s wheel was ‘bent up’, does that imply that the Scion ran the light/tried to ‘beat the light’, and entered the intersection when cross traffic had the green light?
For those wishing to emulate, just remember that it is usually much safer to leave someone IN the car for the paramedics in case there is a spinal injury. Example A: my mom, who was in a head on (local boys racing each other around a blind curve), fractured some cervical vertebrae. If she had been helped willy nilly out of the wreckage she might have been made a quadraplegic but as it was, she was professionally packed into an ambulance and made a full recovery.
He didn’t say the sedan ran the intersection. He the sedan entered the intersection while there was still cross traffic. While it was the sedan driver’s responsibility to ensure the intersection was clear before entering it, if he had the green light then I think most drivers would assume there is no cross traffic. If the sedan driver had the green light, then the fault lies with the Scion driver for running a red light. If the sedan driver had a red light, then yes; he ran the intersection and is at fault.
I was on the southbound road on the right side, with my back to traffic. This traffic was three lanes wide and a one-way street as it was coming off the southbound “half” of a bridge. The southbound was one-way on both sides of the intersection. However, there’s a twist because the cross traffic was one-way on the west bound but two-ways on the east bound side. So southbound had the option of going straight or turning right to go west. Westbound had the option of turning left to go south or continuing across. The eastbound could only tun right to go south. And there’s no northbound. If you want to see it, go to Google maps and look at Fowler Street and 1st Street, Fort Myers, FL. The sedan was in the leftmost lane southbound. The Scion was in the rightmost lane westbound. This made them the first two lanes to “touch” at the intersection. The lady I helped kept saying that she had a yellow. I did not see since I was looking west away from the intersection. Now I do know that southbound traffic was stopped in the run up to the accident, but I don’t know which person was pushing the limits, if not both. The witness behind the sedan said he was slowing down for the intersection, so I inferred that the light was still red. But I cannot do any more than that.
As for moving the lady in the car, she was already climbing out on her own, so saying I pulled her out is a bit of an exaggeration. Really, I helped her climb out by letting her hold my hand and lifting up.
