Geo Duarte
By Geo Duarte
Serious vehicle vs. scooter collision in the parking lot of S.B. Athletic in downtown Santa Barbara.
At 7:37 PM Thursday in the 500 Block of Castillo Street, a man riding an electric scooter in the direction of the DMV building. through the parking lot near the athletics club, was apparently cut off by a gray Toyota SUV.
The scooter struck the right side of the SUV and his body surfed over the hood, landing hard on the asphalt. The rider had visible abrasions to the right side of his face, it is unknown if there were internal injuries.
The patient was transported to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital E.R. / L.1. Trauma center to assess internal injuries.
Photo by Geo Duarte
Hope he was wearing a helmet.
I did not see a helmet.
Cut off by the vehicle? May be more to this.
NICO – could be the car didn’t see him. It was getting dark and scooter riders can come out of nowhere pretty fast, especially if they don’t have lights on.
Two weeks ago I came the closet I ever have to killing someone. A young dude on an electric scooter was riding parallel to my vehicle, and thank gawd I was watching him like a hawk. I was going under the speed limit. This guy never looked back over his shoulder, never gave even the slightest hint that he was going to turn. Next thing I knew, he hung a sharp left, directly in front of me. I slammed on my brakes so hard, I laid rubber and my car even started to slide sideways. In my mind’s eye —- in slo-mo —– I swear I saw this idiot being dragged under my car. I still can’t believe I didn’t hit him. Amazingly, the five cars following mine all managed to stop, too, with no rear ending of other vehicles. The scooter guy continued on his way, never looked back, never acknowledged that he had come so close to death. I am not exaggerating in the slightest when I state that I missed slamming into him (with my steel bumper) by only a few inches. And, yes, he was not wearing a helmet, he had ear buds in, and he was about 20 years of age. **************** Yesterday I watched a young kid on an E-bike, maybe age 15+, run a righthand turn red light on Las Positas Rd, onto Modoc, heading south ——right in front of me, as I had the green light. He ran the light doing about 20 mph. THEN, he ran the red light at Mission St. and 101, heading east. He did have on a helmet. Slim hope, but maybe his parents will read this and take action. Time was around 8:00 a.m. Thursday.