Pedestrian Hit By Car on Ponce This Morning
Decatur Metro | December 1, 2009UPDATE: Chief Booker writes in…
…yesterday at approximately 9:26am., Decatur officers responded to a pedestrian that had been struck by a vehicle. Upon arrival officers determined that a female was walking northbound within the crosswalk in the 200 block of West Ponce de Leon Avenue at its intersection with Ponce de Leon Place. The driver of the Chevy Malibu failed to yield and subsequently struck the pedestrian. The pedestrian was treated on scene and then was transported to Atlanta Medical Center. Injuries sustained at the time of the accident did not appear to be life threatening.
The “wreck” reported on Twitter in the 9am hour at Ponce de Leon Ave and Ponce de Leon Place (in front of Cakes and Ale) was actually a pedestrian hit by a car.
Jonathan writes in with an eye-witness account…
I’m pretty sure a pedestrian got hit by a vehicle this morning crossing Ponce at Ponce Place. It’s possible that the pedestrian had just fallen or something and the driver (turning left on to Ponce, eastbound) just stopped right in front of her to help. But it looked like a vehicle-pedestrian collision.
Since multiple vehicles had stopped to tend to the downed pedestrian (who was sitting up in the crosswalk and seemed conscious) and I heard approaching ambulance sirens, I thought it would be best to stay out of the way.
Altmod referred to the incident as…
…the pedestrian hit this morning in front of Cakes and Ale while crossing the street. Many cop cars, ambulances, fire trucks, etc. Any word if she is okay?
I’ve got a note in to Decatur PD requesting further detail. Stay tuned.
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I was walking by as the pedestrian was hit and turned to look just in time to see her slump to the ground. The driver immediately jumped out of her car as did all the drivers nearby (with cellphones in hand). Within minutes there were 4 cop cars, a motorcycle, and then 2 fire trucks as well. The pedestrian seemed to have injured her left leg in the impact, although the driver was not going fast at all. (I felt like a creep just standing on the sidewalk for 10 minutes but, like Jonathan, I felt there wasn’t much else that I could do to help since everyone closer responded so quickly.)
Hope to hear she’s alright…
How terrible– but at least the driver stopped. Was there any way to tell if the pedestrian was in the crosswalk when she was hit? Just curious.
I’d say she was in the crosswalk. Seemed to be, from my perspective.
Agreed — it looked that way to me…
Yeesh. If she was in the crosswalk, the driver’s more than likely gonna be held liable for the incident. Fortunately, the person who hit her apparently wasn’t going that fast, so it could’ve been even worse. Golly, what a nightmare– hitting a pedestrian with your car. Be vigilant, everybody!
oh my! I didnt realize that was what it was! I drove past on my way to work, and just saw 2 cars in the middle of the road, but the cops were directing traffic so I didnt get a chance to look over for that long. Hope all is alright!
I’m not sure if this is the same spot in this intersection, but crossing Ponce Place on the CVS side of this intersection (not the cakes & ale / cafe lily side), seems to be kind of dangerous… especially when you have the walk signal. For some reason, cars making a left turn off Ponce onto Ponce Place (toward the neighborhoods, not Sushi Ave) have a hard time seeing pedestrians crossing the street. I’ve had two instances where a car didn’t see me crossing (despite the walk signal) and had to slam on their brakes mid way through the turn onto Ponce Place. The repeated incidents make me think there is a visibility problem for cars at this intersection or something. Now the only time I cross this intersection is when it’s clear there are no cars that could possibly turn. The walk signal can’t be trusted here.
That’s happened to us more than once– scared the billy blue blazes out of me! Maybe there’ll eventually be a raised crosswalk there, too…
On a related note, on my way home last night I stopped at the notorious pedestrian crosswalk in front of TDS to allow a gentleman to cross. He seemed genuinely surprised that I would do this even though it’s, you know, THE LAW. His shock is understandable given the way most folks fly through this section of Ponce, crosswalk be damned. Sure enough, the driver behind me honked and threw up his hands as if I was somehow in the wrong for stopping.
Please pay attention, people.
Another way to irritate the drivers behind you is to drive the speed limit.
See the report from Chief Booker at the top of this post.
Luckily this woman seems to be alright. And she’ll get a nice little bodily injury settlement from the dude’s insurance company right before the Holiday!
I’m glad she’s alright, too, but I sure hope she doesn’t “get a nice little bodily injury settlement” right before the holidays…because if she does, it surely won’t be for what her case is worth! She needs to get all the medical treatment required and hire a lawyer to make Snake Farm or Regressive pay.
I live in the Ponce de Leon Place neighborhood and at certain times of year the sun angle as you turn left from Ponce Place onto Ponce is very treacherous. It is literally blinding. I have come very close to striking a pedestrian even when “creeping” around the corner while driving. I am familiar with the danger and always take my time at this corner. I don’t know if this was a factor in the accident, but anyone leaving CVS,etc. from this direction should be very careful.
When are we going to get serious about the crosswalks. We claim to be a pedestrian focused neighborhood. As I walk around Decatur I constantly see cars running through the crosswalks while pedestrians are crossing. I have never seen a police officer watching these crosswalks or ticketing a car for not yielding to pedestrians. I believe it is Boston that fines a driver $500 for entering a crosswalk while a pedestrian is attempting to cross. There are even signs posted alerting drivers of the seriousness of the fine.
This will continue until our law enforcement takes this serious.
Brent, you haven’t been watching enough. Decatur Police regularly ticket crosswalk violators and even occasionally run “stings”. I can assure you the the police take pedestrians seriously in Decatur and organizations like PEDS have recognized that.
I think at the same time we need get serious about pedestrians in the middle of the road, walking parallel to perfectly good sidewalks and crossing in the middle of the street? That’s just as illegal and even more likely to cause an horrible bloody harm. I have seen an awful illegally crossing pedestrian vs. legally turning SUV collision, and let me tell you, it’s horrible.
Sorry, I’m going to keep making this argument.
Both car drivers and pedestrians are only human. Therefore no one should be shocked that sometimes either/or don’t follow the rules.
HOWEVER, I’m still pretty convinced that the extra responsibility to be safe when it comes to cars/bikes/peds goes to whomever can do the most harm, not to whomever annoys you most. That means it’s always a driver’s responsibility to be the MOST law abiding. And in my firsthand experience that isn’t true at ALL. Therefore in my opinion, concerns about peds crossing illegally are secondary to the irresponsible motorist.
Your comment reminds me of a recent Slate article called “In Defense of Jaywalking.” I agree that pedestrian stupidity is frustrating and can get messy (I’m sure your experience was highly disturbing). Yet, the article points to some interesting statistics that suggest that illegal pedestrian problems aren’t nearly as bad as they seem. The author notes that drivers violate a pedestrian’s right-of-way more often than the opposite, and that the numbers are probably somewhat distorted because the pedestrian often isn’t around to tell his/her side of the story. Check it out; I found the numbers to be quite eye-opening.
Incidentally, this article is also the first place I read about the “leading pedestrian interval,” a walk signal setup that gives pedestrians a head start so they’re more easily visible to turning drivers. It seems like the Ponce-Ponce Place intersection would be a perfect spot for such a setup.