GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - Joyce Gibson still is not out of rehab, two months after she was struck by a hit-and-run driver while crossing Beacon Drive at D Street. The white extended-cab pickup truck that struck her just kept on going.
It was close to dusk on Christmas Eve. Gibson, 61, was headed to a friend’s place, riding her motorized scooter.
It was still light outside, but a little foggy, she recalls. The headlight and taillight on her scooter were on. She was headed east. The truck came up from the south.
“People should be more careful,” the retired housekeeper said recently, a brace still on her broken leg, as she sat on a bed at Royale Gardens Health & Rehabilitation Center. She’s not sure when she’ll get out.
In a city with nearly 400 reports of hit-and-runs a year, most of them parking lot fender-benders, Gibson unwittingly and unwillingly became a statistic.
A few balloons and flowers decorate the room Gibson shared with another woman. A handle attached to a piece of exercise equipment hung above her head, ready to use to exercise her arms.
In addition to her tibia, two of her ribs were broken. Damage was done “all up and down the right side,” she said.
That’s the side the truck came from. It struck her, slowed and then sped away west, a witness told police. The collision knocked her maybe 40 feet. Her scooter was destroyed.
Gibson doesn’t even think the truck stopped at the stop sign before striking her. It was an extended or double-cab Dodge with a canopy, she said. A witness told Gibson’s friend that he got a license plate number, but the witness evidently didn’t talk to police. Gibson surely would like that person to come forward - or for the driver to fess up.
“I hope it lays heavy on his conscience,” Gibson said of the driver. “I really do. I don’t wish him ill will, but it’s not right.”
Gibson’s friend, Tomra Abelar, suggested a flashing yellow light at the intersection.
“I’m afraid to walk acrosss that intersection,” she said. “From my house, we hear people screech. Everybody runs the stop signs. It’s a thoroughfare.”
Jim Hamilton, interim deputy chief of the Grants Pass Department of Public Safety, said he is not aware that the intersection was a particular hot spot for crashes. It’s a four-way stop. The department did not have crash data for the intersection.
“It’s not one of those we go to regularly,” Hamilton said. “I don’t know if it jumps out.”
Hamilton said the intersection was considered as a possible location for a traffic circle about 12 years ago. Traffic circles, also known as roundabouts, have been successful in many cities at reducing speeds and crashes.
“In general, roundabouts tend to be a calming device, but it also allows the flow of traffic to continue,” Hamilton said.
There are usually a handful of reasons hit-and-run drivers leave.
“It could be they’re unlicensed or uninsured,” Hamilton said. “Another reason could be they don’t realize they hit something. Also, some people have the belief that just because they don’t see any damage they don’t have to stop.
“You at least have to stop and check on everybody.”
Sgt. Misty English, who supervises the city’s traffic officers, said drivers who don’t stop might be intoxicated or have a warrant out for their arrest. Of those who don’t stop, some might be elderly persons who don’t realize they’ve hit something.
“It happens more often than you think,” she said.
Some hit-and-run crashes are much worse than fender-benders.
On Oct. 30, two men were struck and killed on the Redwood Highway south of Cave Junction. Witnesses said Jarred Houston, 21, and Robert Calvin, 41, were arguing or fighting in the middle of the highway when they were struck by a vehicle that left the scene and has not been located. The vehicle has been described as a tan or cream-colored 1980s pickup truck, possibly a Toyota, and either a 4x4 or at least partly lifted.
One effort to increase the number of drivers with licenses and insurance - and maybe decrease the number of hit-and-run incidents - has had little effect.
Since 2009, Oregon’s Department of Motor Vehicles and Department of Transportation have done annual reports on the impacts of a 2008 law aimed at driving without a license and without insurance. The law requires people to demonstrate proof of legal residence to get a driver’s license.
The report compares drivers involved in accidents before and after the law took effect. It found that the percentage of drivers who drive without insurance or licenses hasn’t changed much.
There is a bit of good news for Gibson in all of this: Another scooter has been donated for her use by the HASL Center for Independent Living, a nonprofit group that serves people with disabilities and senior citizens who face mobility challenges.
Gibson’s friend, Abelar, said Gibson was thrilled when she got her first scooter last summer.
“She just blossomed,” Abelar said. “She was more independent. It was just so wonderful. She was so happy and now this happens.
“She’s such a sweetheart,” Abelar continued. “It just kills me something like this would happen. Nobody’s taken account for it.”
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Information from: Daily Courier, https://www.thedailycourier.com
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