E-mail Story
Print Friendly
Send E-mail
Reprint story
Journal North: Home | Sports | Opinion | Obits | Entertainment
Monday, November 02, 2009
Pedestrian Cited After Being Struck
By Polly Summar
Journal Staff Writer
Pedestrians beware. That's what Arroyo Seco artist Paul Pascarella says New Mexicans need to know.
Pascarella was walking on a narrow road recently when he was hit by the side mirror of a passing pickup. Pascarella was walking with traffic, not facing it — which, as Pascarella later found out in the hospital emergency room, is a definite no-no.
A State Police officer visited him at Holy Cross Hospital in Taos, heard his story, read him the state statute on which side of the road pedestrians are supposed to use and gave him a warning citation.
That was bad enough, said Pascarella. "But not to give a driver a ticket who hit a pedestrian?" said Pascarella. "That's unheard of."
Peter Olson, spokesman for the state police, said the warning was issued for violation of a portion of state law that says, "Where sidewalks are not provided, any pedestrian walking along and upon a highway shall when practicable walk only on the left side of the roadway or its shoulder facing traffic which may approach from the opposite direction."
Violations of the law can result in a fine — a whopping $10, according to the statute.
"I haven't heard of this before," Olson said. "But clearly there's some provision in the state law. There must have been some need for the law to be written that way."
Pascarella was sure it was just a matter of showing the officer, Dominic Lucero, the scene of the accident and explaining what had happened. So he arranged to meet Lucero and his supervisor, Lt. William Jenkins, at his home two days after the accident to show them.
Pascarella said the day of the accident was an ordinary one. For the past 19 years, several times a week, Pascarella walks from his house north of Taos up to the single-lane road, crosses it and walks some 15 to 20 feet on the right side of the road before heading up a mountain trail. He didn't know he'd been a regular scofflaw, violating the state statute by walking on the wrong side of the road.
But on Oct. 20, during that short 15- to 20-foot stretch on the road, Pascarella was hit on his left shoulder by the protruding mirror of a 1986 Toyota pickup, according to the police report, that was going in the same direction.
Lucero and Jenkins maintain that Pascarella was in the wrong.
It was a Valverde Energy truck, driven by employee Alberto Trujillo, that hit the artist. The driver and Pascarella both said the sun's glare was a factor in the accident.
Pascarella said he was knocked off his feet and thrown into the ditch that runs alongside the road. No bones were broken, but Pascarella, 65, suffered bruises and was still sore last week.
Trujillo stopped to check on the injured man, Pascarella said, but Pascarella was able to walk home. There, he called 911 to report the incident, and an ambulance was sent to his house that took him to the emergency room at Holy Cross Hospital. That's where the State Police showed up and gave Pascarella the formal warning citation.
Larry Mapes, the owner of Valverde Energy, also came to see Pascarella in the ER. He said he was very upset about the accident, and so was Trujillo.
"He said, 'If there's anything I can do,' and I said, 'Well, it put a hole in my jacket,' " said Pascarella, describing the jacket as a $430 Arc'teryx Gore-tex jacket. "And he said, 'I'll get you another one.' "
Mapes confirmed that he had offered to buy Pascarella a new jacket and given him the name of his insurance company.
"In seven years, we have a perfect driving record," Mapes said of his company, except for the one time when his own brakes went out. "I definitely insure all my trucks."
You also can send comments via our comment form
|
|
