Motorist Hits Pedestrian, Drives Home With Body in Windshield

[Judi Lynn]

Motorist Hits Pedestrian, Drives Home With Body in Windshield
The Associated Press
Published: Jul 7, 2003



DELEON SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) - A motorist drove home about a mile with the legless body of a pedestrian in his front windshield before calling authorities to report that he hit the man with his car, officials said.

Joseph Markert, 57, was trying to cross U.S. 1 in DeLeon Springs when he was hit by a car driven by Daniel Dradeen, 19, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

The medical examiner will determine if Markert survived the impact, but it's more likely that he died immediately, said Mark O'Keefe of EVAC, which provides emergency services for Volusia County.

Deputies first learned of the accident, which happened about midnight Friday, from patrons at a bar who called 911 to report finding two legs near the parking lot, Volusia County sheriff's reports said. (snip/...)

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/florida/MGA6Y8N9VHD.html

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Forgive my posting a story TOTALLY UNRELATED to politics, but it's just too strange to let go, without noting it.

How could this happen TWICE?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. FHP officers comments that it was the pedestrian's fault

seem a bit premature! Hmmmm.....

[Fovea]

6. it seems business as usual

He didn't just hit him. He tore him to peices. I did not have that happen when I hit a deer with my truck at 55mph, and the deer was less than one hundred pounds.

No, I don't buy the blameless driver comment

[Fleshdancer]

2. Am I the only one here who

assumes the right wing nuts will somehow blame Clinton for this?

[LoZoccolo]

9. No but...

...if the right wing starts getting in "trouble" you might see a lot of coverage of this!

February 15th...protests all around the world...Fox News? LACI PETERSON COVERAGE!

[NYC]

3. Since the legs were found in the parking lot,

he must have hit the pedestrian in the parking lot. Why didn't he go back inside to call 911?

(The article won't open for me.)

I find it strange that there is more than one person in the world who could drive home with a pedestrian in the windshield.

Edit: The article opened.

This is a terrible quote. It almost makes it sound as though the pedestrian deserved to be hit for wearing dark clothing:

"It's the pedestrian's fault. He was wearing dark clothing," Miller said.

[Sick of Bullshit]

5. How fast would the driver have to be going

in order for the pedestrian's legs to be physically removed? Seems to me like it would have to be pretty damn fast

[Judi Lynn]

10. Try this link

http://www.wftv.com/news/2316984/detail.html

(I got lucky by going to googlenews, and putting the headline, in quotes in the search. Sometimes this works, not always.)

[mjb4]

11. a lot of Chante Mallard story was a lie

during testimony she stated that the pedestrian was UNDER THE DASH. How could he be under the dash and in the windshield. The press also said that he was stuck in the windshield for 48 hours. He acutally died less than 2 hours later. They kept the story as absurd as possible to taint the jury pool. Not saying what she did was good, but the state of TX and the media wanted to guarantee the MOST sever punishment possible. ANd they kept showing the kid as a kid when he was a GROWN MAN! You never knew the son was a grown man until the TRIAL.

[greyl]

12. He went home to dump the contraband.

-just guessing.

[KCDem]

15. no worse then blaming rape victims for their attire!

And people do that all the time.

[Chicagonian]

17. the legs weren't found IN the parking lot-

"Since the legs were found in the parking lot, he must have hit the pedestrian in the parking lot..."

According to the article, the legs were found "NEAR" the parking lot-

Some dumbass was crossing a highway on foot, at night, wearing dark clothes-
If the cops aren't blaming the kid driving the car, I sure as hell don't see any reason to do so.

[derrald]

4. This is a tad diff.

This guy called as soon as he could, the girl in the other case went home and spent the night while the guy was still alive.

[NYC]

7. I think this is extremely different.

Now that the article opened for me, it seems the nearest telephone may have been the one at his home a mile away.

Still, it seems an odd occurrence to me.

[greyl]

13. but patrons at the bar parking lot called 911 first.

I don't want to prosecute the guy, but it's normal to stop after hitting a raccoon, isn't it?

[Chicagonian]

18. um...no.

why would you stop after hitting a raccoon?
if it were injured and rabid, it could be very dangerous.

I was going down a country road in the middle of the nowhere a while back, when all of a sudden a dog bolted out of some bushes and ran directly into the front bumper of my car as i was going about 70mph- it freaked me out, and in the rearview mirror, I saw the dog's body spinning down the highway-there was no way for me to stop safely, and there was no way the dog could have lived, and nothing I could have done for it. It upset me greatly for quite awhile, but when it happened, it was unavoidable.

[jobycom]

8. Without further details, I'm on the kid's side

He's nineteen, he strikes a guy crossing the road, he's probably doing at least sixty. You travel a mile in a minute at that speed, or a little longer if you have to make a few turns to get home. The kid didn't respond well, but still responded understandably for such an incident. This isn't much at all like the case in Ft Worth.

[chookie]

14. Some troubling details

I don't know -- this story just doesn't make sense.

First of all -- the legs were found near a bar -- presumably the man was struck very near the bar, which, at midnight, still would have been open.

Any DUers familiar with the area described here? Was it a divided highway? What's the speed limit? I am presuming that this is a bar on the highway -- I would guess the speed limit was 55 -- and that the man who was killed was making a dash across the highway which is the only thing a pedestrian can do in such a circumstance -- and that the driver did not see him and struck him, and was too freaked out to stop. He may have seen no other cars on the road, and thought it prudent to return to his home 1 mile away -- even though presumably a bar, still open, was nearer than his home.

Anyone want to venture a guess as to how fast he was going when he struck the man? Knowing FL roads -- if the speed limit was 55, the kid was going 65, and if the limit was 65, he was going 80....

I find it very strange that the driver has been apparently completely cleared in the incident, and that police have laid blame completely on the victim. What's going on here? I know that pedestrians and cyclists are pretty much fair game in FL, but shouldn't this driver be given a least a wee bit more scrutiny -- or is he a friend of George P?

Perhaps it was just a poor choice of words, but it seems very creepy that the FHP are characterizing the incident as entirely the victim's fault (he happened to be wearing dark clothes that day) and described the driver as a "poor kid" in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[moroni]

16. Hmmmm

I had a younger brother hit by a car on an interstate. Killed instantly. No severed limbs though. Could the legs be artificial?

[WhataBildeberger]

19. This guy's innocent

look for the one-armed man!