There can be little dispute that pedestrians can face significant, and even fatal, injuries in a car versus pedestrian accident. The sheer mass of a motor vehicle is no match for the human body. Hazards surrounding the site of an accident can also pose a risk to a pedestrian struck by a vehicle. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that a pedestrian is injured every eight minutes in this country on average. And a fatal pedestrian accident occurs once every two hours.
While the national CDC statistics may seem sobering, a different alleged statistic is attaching to a fatal pedestrian accident, which was reported Tuesday in Springfield, Massachusetts. Law enforcement says that a man ran his pickup truck into a pedestrian around 8:00 Tuesday evening on Plainfield Street in Springfield.
The accident victim succumbed to his injuries sometime after arriving at Baystate Medical Center. The horrific statistic in Tuesday’s fatal pedestrian accident? Police say that the driver involved had previously struck a pedestrian with his pickup truck.
A Springfield Police sergeant told WGGB-TV News that the same driver struck a 42-year-old East Longmeadow, Massachusetts woman in West Springfield last February. The accident victim in that incident was struck while crossing a street around 9:30 in the evening. She also died as a result of the injuries she sustained in the accident.
WGGB News reports that the family of last year’s fatal accident is still searching for closure after losing a loved one in such a way. News of the alleged repeat performance Tuesday night involving a new victim, and victim’s family has led to frustration for those seeking closure from last year’s tragedy. Now, another family is left without a loved one after Tuesday evening’s fatal accident.
Source: WGGB-TV, “Driver Accused in Deadly Springfield Accident Involved in 2012 Crash,” May 15th, 2013
