Sadly I walked by the scene of a horrific accident his morning. An out-of-service Metrobus was turning right off Connecticut onto Florida Avenue when it struck a pedestrian who was crossing Florida. I saw the fire engine heading towards the scene, and by the time I arrived at the intersection, MPD was moving their cars to block people from seeing the victim. Papers were strewn about the street, likely from a briefcase or bag the person had been carrying.DC FEMS quickly loaded the person into an ambulance, which headed West on Florida with an MPD escort, presumably going to George Washington Hospital.
WTOP has the first news story online, with little detail beyond what was evident at the scene. MPD and Transit Police are investigating, and the Metrobus driver will undergo drug and alcohol testing.
From what I saw at the scene, it looked unlikely that the pedestrian was in the crosswalk (see diagram). The bus was all the way through the crosswalk, and people were still able to use the crosswalk. The point of impact appeared to be roughly a bus-length east of the intersection. Pure speculation, but I'd guess the person was crossing the street on a path that goes directly to the Rite Aid, rather than crossing the street at the crosswalk with the island. I've been guilty of jaywalking in that exact same spot.
There's no information yet on the extent of the injuries other than they are "life-threatening." It was a bit terrifying to see. My thoughts go out to the victim and the family. Scary stuff.
I work right by the Rite Aid and saw the commotion there this morning and wondered what was going on. Thanks for the information, and I certainly send my prayers to the victim.
ReplyDeleteIt's a really crazy intersection, and I tend to be a bit of a daredevil crossing the street. Maybe less so now.
FYI, the bus was only recently moved - probably about 10-20 minutes ago (it's 2:00 now).
ReplyDeleteNobody should jump to conclusions about this accident yet - DCist says the bus was NOT turning at the time of the accident but rather traveling east on Florida Avenue. Combine that with the fact that it was a jogger, not in a crosswalk, and I'd say a good possibility they were wearing headphones like so many joggers I see, and I'm putting my money on "not the bus driver's fault" right now.
ReplyDeleteIf I could paste into this ill-begotten comment box I would post the dcist link, but for some reason, I cannot. Nor do my arrow keys work. I hate the why.i.hate.dc comment system.
Dude i dunno what's wrong with the comment box. Are you in Firefox? It works fine for me on Safari on a Mac and Chrome and IE and Firefox on a PC...
ReplyDeleteWMATA has released conflicting reports, first saying the bus was turning and then saying it was going straight on Florida. From what I saw I have serious doubts it was going straight on Florida, as the front end of the bus was on the wrong side of the street, as if it was in the middle of a right turn.
Given the final position of the bus, and the layout of the sidewalk in the area, I'm sticking with my speculation that she was jaywalking.
Firefox on a PC. It never works. Anyway, I don't think the bus position means too much since most likely, anyone who was about to hit (or did hit) would react in ways such as brake slamming and steering-wheel cranking. Anyway, there's a lot of information missing here, I just hate it when people (read: dcist commenters) automatically jump to the conclusion that it's the driver's fault. In fact it has not been in many of the accidents in the last couple years.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't do that here, I respect that.
Thanks, yeah, we'll have to see what we learn from any sort of official reports. It'll be interesting to compare that to the initial speculation.
ReplyDeleteI still don't know how to explain the papers in the street, perhaps from a bystander who rushed to help.
"she was wearing earbuds" - from dcist article that I cannot link to without hand typing the link.
ReplyDeleteWhy people jog in the city with ipods/earbuds i will never comprehend.