VX Accident in Tampa

[Jonnie]

I bought my first house friday and I have been moving stuff over to it.

Comming home tonite on a dark 4 lane road, a spanish guy wearing only shorts, ran across the median and into the roadway in front of me and he was hit by my passenger side fender after I slammed on the brakes. it was like have a deer run into the road, he was really moving.

I feel sick.

broken turn signal, crease mark, and a big dirt mark, guess he was covered in dirt for some reason. he was air lifted out.

Jonnie :(

[transio]

:eek: Did the medics think he'd be ok?

[transio]

PS - talk to a lawyer.

[Jonnie]

:eek: Did the medics think he'd be ok?

It seemed so. Not sure how old they thought 17/18, spoke spanish, just had shorts on, was dirty and running. The Deputies thought I had no problems. they said the road was bad and it has happened 3 times already. They guessed he was illegal, maybe up to no good. They said they had lots ot transients in that area. They really did not seem to be too worried about it.

Jonnie

[WyrreJ]

Still, talk to a lawyer. Better safe than sorry. From your abbreviated description it does sound like it could easily be a scam setup -- especially the "3 times already" part. I know that loading a bunch of people into a car and then trying to get rear-ended is a really common scam. Jumping in front of traffic like you described could easily be something similar, people who have "nothing left to lose" can do all kinds of dangerous sh|t if they think it will give them a chance at a better a future.

[thebear54]

Sorry to hear about your little run in with the local "wildlife" :eek:
Take the advise and just touch base with your attorney.
At least you are OK (hopefully the kid will be OK too) and that there is only minor damage to the VX.
John

[crager34]

I bought my first house friday and I have been moving stuff over to it.

Comming home tonite on a dark 4 lane road, a spanish guy wearing only shorts, ran across the median and into the roadway in front of me and he was hit by my passenger side fender after I slammed on the brakes. it was like have a deer run into the road, he was really moving.

I feel sick.

broken turn signal, crease mark, and a big dirt mark, guess he was covered in dirt for some reason. he was air lifted out.

Jonnie :(

First thing I noticed was the title of the post. Second thing was that you hit a "human being". Third, there was no mention of said human being's condition in the first post. Finally.... the complete apathay towards this human being vs. the overplaced concern for the VX. :thumbdn:

[tomdietrying]

Yeah, I have to agree with Crager34. From your post, it reads that your more upset about the damaged VX than the damaged person.

Your VX can always be fixed.

Peace.
Tom

p.s.
Just because the person is dirty and wearing shorts doesn't mean he is up to no good. It probably means he is less fortunate than you.

[dkmiller68]

First thing I noticed was the title of the post. Second thing was that you hit a "human being". Third, there was no mention of said human being's condition in the first post. Finally.... the complete apathay towards this human being vs. the overplaced concern for the VX.


I thought the same thing. I am not being judgemental of Jonnie, just sorrow that we (including me) often have our priorities confused. If, in fact, the runner had 'nothing to lose', it shows a failure of the human condition that we let others get to that point. I think Jonnie should try to meet the person and get to understand him and his situation and see if he can help him. Jonnie has a unique opportunity to learn here. Go Jonnie Go

[Tone]

I think the wording and tone are politically and humanely incorrect. And the big question is why post this unless the VX is the only concern?

[Joe_Black]

I've had the pleasure of meeting Jonnie personally several times and also serviced his tranny too. Before jumping to conclusions about where his priorities are, take a step back and put yourself in his shoes. I'm pretty sure he felt sick from hitting a person, not the damage to the VX. He came here, his VX family, to share what happened. I can now see that if something similar ever happens to me I'll be sure to keep it off the board and just reach via email those here I know won't start knee-jerk bashing me. :nob:

Jonnie, glad to hear the guy got quick medical attention which I'm sure you're responsible for. Hope the adrenalin faded quick and things work out for you. Give a ring if you need anything!

[VCAMILO]

I've been there too! The last of my worries was the damage to my car. My first priority was the injured person. Right after that it shifted into witnesses because the pedestrian was the one at fault. All went well and I never got a call for court. Wish you the best. Next time a dear whisle would probably work best for you. :)

[AlaskaVX]

C'mon people! The guy jumped a median and ran in front of a car! He got what was coming!

Jonnie, did you appoligize to the dirt he was standing on? Cus the impact of the VX must have dug the guys feet in a bit, heck it could have even knocked his shoes off and exposed his dirty Spanish feet to that poor dirt. :rolleyes:

[transio]

I don't think some of you are being fair to Johnnie. You have to understand that just because John doesn't show a lot of remorse or concern for the boy in his post does not mean that he is apathetic or has his priorities confused, as you suggest. There are many factors and occurrences between the accident and his post here that have influenced the tone of his recollection.

He has had conversations with apathetic police officers who seemingly convinced John that this kid is a scam artist or criminal. Even despite that, I highly doubt that John cares more about his truck than the kid. He simply omitted the emotions he felt from the point of the accident until he was helped to rationalize it. This is likely because he's been given a manner to suppress the emotions and doesn't want to relive the trauma by repeating everything here. Read up on PTSD.

He gave more information about the VX because he had more info at the time about the VX. All he knew about the kid was that he was airlifted out. Also, John is not the greatest writer, and didn't take care to put the information in proper order. For instance, he put the bit about the kid after the info about the VX and separated from the contextual "i feel sick." This incorrectly gives the impression that he's sick about the VX and "by the way, the kid was airlifted." Unless you believe that John is a sociopath, this is obviously not the case.

Rant over. Now, those of you who are so quick to condemn, maybe look inside and ask yourself why you choose to criticize others rather than comfort them in THEIR time of need?

[Anita]

When I read it I thought he skewed his storytelling to the subject at hand for us on the site. My next post would have been to ask how the person was.

[Scott Harness]

Would love to get into this really deep, but you know my name and where I live. HA! Humans aren't so special. Would the outcry be so harsh if it had been an animal.The voice box is the basic reason we are at the top of the food chain! Communication not divinity or intelligence. I might be wrong but I think humans are the only species that defecates in it's own food and water supply. ps. I'm a people person...really. pps. fish don't count HA!

[Ldub]

Hey Scott,
The "outcry scale" for animals is sliding & based on the "cute factor", with puppies & kittens closer to the top & baboons,snakes,vultures & spiders,etc. closer to the bottom. All this is confused by one's own view of what's ugly...go figger. :confused:
Ldub

[Scott Harness]

Sadly ,you are correct sir!

[WyrreJ]

When he said, "I feel sick" that sounded to me like he was talking about how the experience of hitting a person made him feel. I could be wrong, but it seemed pretty clear to me. That's exactly how I would feel. Which is why I advised him to look out for himself, when you feel like that you might not be so quick to take care of yourself because of the emotional shock.

[Scott Harness]

Ldub I just realized you misunderstood me. I didn't mean fish don't count. I was referring to the defecating in ones own water supply,sorry my fault.

[mbeach]

1. Transio, as usual sir, well said.

2. Scott, my dog eats its own poop.

3. Both myself and my wife have been victims (nearly) of similar scams. She had a "swoop and squat" accident with a carload of people, and I had a bum throw himself in front of my M3. Sometimes people just assume that by driving a nice car, you are capable of sharing the wealth (not like I really had any, the M3 was the only thing that I owned at the time).

In my wife's case, AllState's insurance fraud division sniffed out the truth pretty quickly. In my case, I smelled a scam the very second "lawsuit" came out of this derelict's mouth. I'll leave the details out, but I will say any accident of this nature should be taken as someone's attempt to get a payday.
It may not always be the case, but it's better to be a jerk than a victim.

[Jonnie]

OK, this is the last on it for me, I'm not looking for a fight or name calling or whatever.

There are a few things that led to the way I posted: I tend to be terse when I write, I am not a great wordsmith, this is a VX site and people post mainly about their VXs, accidents, marriages, pets, polictical opinions, cats,etc. Its a public forum and I felt the bare facts would be best, especially I was still shaking from it just happening.

I am very upset for everyone about what happened (him,his family, me and the VX). I was the guy who keep asking how to find out things and what to do. Deputies responded: calm down, relax, you'll be home shortly, we'll give you the quick form (accident report), you have nothing to worry about, this road is dangerous, there needs to be lighting here, its happened 3 times, theres lots of tranients here. I kept asking what to do, who to call, who would call and I got the same response: relax, everything is OK, go home.

I kept asking about his condition and they only said, he'll be ok.

So in the end paint me what ever way makes you feel most comfortable.

I remain sick about it.

I tried calling friends and could not get a hold of anyone. Siting here I posted to the forum not knowing what else to do.

Maybe this needs a thread lock. :(

Jonnie

PS Thanks Joe, that helped a lot.

[tomdietrying]

Johnnie,

You made things very clear this time. My apologizes to you.

Peace.
Tom

p.s.
I hope things work out well for everyone involved.

[Raque Thomas]

Is it just my imagination, or did a few of the "hate posts" here get toned down? Reading back over this post, some of the nasty things said seem to have been removed now that more of the facts are known.....hmmmm, maybe we shouldn't post those rant comments in the future till we know all the facts???

[dkmiller68]

Thanks for the update Jonnie...our understanding of the situation is more complete. I hope you will follow up post as to his condition and if it is determined to be a scam.

There is a piece of woods on my daily commute that sometimes had homeless people stand about asking for assistence. I worked up my nerve one day and went into the woods to explore (and see if I could help). There was no one there (and since has had very little activity) but plenty of remnants of homeless living in the woods. It was intensly sad. Some old signs written on cardboard about their plight. Peace. dkm

[crager34]

When people talk, it makes sense to me that they wish to be understood, so I try to hear/read what they say and draw from that (not what remains inside their head). Considering what was originally said and how it was presented, the subsequent comments were not surprising.

Jonnie - Thanks for taking the time to clarify and help us understand the situation better. I hope all parties (and VX's) involved are doing well.