By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
A Pensacola, Fla. man was seriously injured Monday morning, August 15, when he apparently got out of his wife’s car and walked into the path of a vehicle driven by a 22-year-old Atmore man.
Florida Highway Patrol reports do not provide the names of drivers, passengers or pedestrians involved in motor vehicle accidents.
FHP reports do show that the mishap occurred around 6:50 a.m. The 31-year-old Pensacola man was in the front passenger seat of his wife’s vehicle, which was stopped in traffic in the inside lane of U.S. 29 near the highway’s intersection with Muscogee Road. (Actually, Muscogee Road becomes Becks Lake Road when it crosses U.S. 29.)
Troopers reported that the man, whose vision was blocked by a cement truck stopped in 29’s outside lane, got out of his wife’s vehicle and started walking westward across the highway’s outside and right-turn lanes, toward Champion Golf Course.
A sedan of unspecified make and model, driven by the unidentified Atmore man, was southbound, also in the outside lane, but switched to the right-turn lane as he approached the intersection. The driver couldn’t stop in time, and the left front of the vehicle struck the pedestrian.
According to the reporting trooper, the injured man “violated (the sedan’s) right-of-way,” resulting in the collision. The Atmore man was not hurt.
The victim was taken by medical evacuation helicopter to an unspecified Pensacola hospital with injuries that were listed on the FHP report as “serious.” An update of his condition was not available at Tuesday’s press deadline.