Skateboarder Hit By Car Then Charged By Police

[skategeezer]

Skateboarder Hit By Car Then Charged By Police

Wednesday March 14, 2007
When Ben Davis shakes his head, a nasty bruise on the side of his face shakes with him.
The Toronto skateboarder is astounded about what's happened to him.
He and several friends were enjoying their favourite pastime on the streets around Kensington Market Tuesday afternoon when a surveillance camera caught an almost unbelievable sight - a car plowed straight into him as he raced along on his board.
"I remember the instant where I got hit, just seeing that huge blue car, I don't know, had a huge grill in front just like trying to jump, and then basically knocked out," he remembers.
He broke his wrist and received some stitches in the impact. But as traumatic as that was, it's not what's upset Davis the most.
It's the fact that police have charged him and not the driver for the mishap, because they claim the motorist wasn't speeding at the time he hit the skater boy.
The result: the person behind the wheel is free while Ben is looking at a ticket for skateboarding in the middle of the road.
His friends are astounded by the development, but all are just grateful that their pal wasn't more seriously injured. And they don't believe the charge is justified.
"It was ridiculous," avers Virgil Baruchel, who managed to get out of the way of the same vehicle.
"Like we skate here every day. Nobody ever drives this fast. Usually when someone almost hits somebody they slow down. They don't keep going just as fast."
Those who live and work in the area aren't interested in assigning blame so much as ensuring everyone is safe.
"We definitely need to control traffic in this neighbourhood," maintains business owner Chris Devita. "It's Kensington Market, and there's never a moment without children or many pedestrians walking the street."
Area residents want speed bumps installed on the street or a total ban on all cars.
For his part, Ben is just happy to be alive. "I'm lucky obviously," he concludes. "Like, so many other things could have gone wrong."
To see the unedited video of the accident, click here.

[EBasil]

What a great system of laws up there. Cite the victim. Nice work!

[Drewseph76]

Thats ####ed up, skateboarders have no respect in the streets, i live in atlanta and a cement truck followed me down a one way street on my ass the whole way honking and ####. I could hardly concentrate. People need to show some love for our hobby!

[MalakaiKingston]

How in the world do you speed in Kensington Market?

I don't think I have even been there when cars had free range, there are always mobs of people. Damn sucks for the kid, Maple Lovers, not to mention humanity as a whole.

[SweetCatarina]

Glad the cameras caught it!

Too bad Jonny Miller in San Luis Obispo won't get the same justice-- a lady ran over him in Feb. while he & some others were running cones in a parking lot. She then backed up & tried to run over his skateboard!

As far as I know, she was not prosecuted.

Skateboarders get little or not respect--- what's up with that?

Jonny's website:

http://www.ccmfslo.com/

[MalakaiKingston]

Originally Posted by SweetCatarina

Glad the cameras caught it!

Too bad Jonny Miller in San Luis Obispo won't get the same justice-- a lady ran over him in Feb. while he & some others were running cones in a parking lot. She then backed up & tried to run over his skateboard!

As far as I know, she was not prosecuted.

Skateboarders get little or not respect--- what's up with that?

Jonny's website:

http://www.ccmfslo.com/

Not to mention the militant member of the grey army that attacked Jonny and Jay then tried to steal their decks and when was routed she stole cones and drove off. SHE STOLE CONES!!!

[Directive0]

Originally Posted by SweetCatarina

Jonny's website:

http://www.ccmfslo.com/

Nothing against those cats... but I can't read the text on that website without physical pain to my eyeballs. Not a great selection of colours for text and background.


And as for this dude... what can I say. He's a skateboarder, he had it coming. They should all be exterminated in my opinion.

[sacpunkkid]

Damn, that kid went far. That's pretyy fvcked up that he was fined. If they were even thinking of punishing him, I would have thought the broken wrist and dented head was enough.

[satori]

to the driver's defense, it didn't look like he was going any faster than the first car in the video... still, i wish skateboards got half the respect bicycles do.

i feel like in any legal situation if the word 'skateboard' is dropped, the rider is automatically an irresponsible punk kid. i hate it! we need more adults that skate and have serious jobs to come out of the woodwork. from my personal experiences, the adults i know who skate aren't exactly CEO's @ fortune 500s. no disrespect to them- they're some of the raddest people i know because they skate and take good care of their families- in my eyes proving that you can be a man AND a skater. but i think it would help if there were publicity about guys who skate and live/work in the 'higher echelons' of society.

[thisisme]

After seeing the video, I don't really think it was the driver's fault. The guy ollies into the street right in front of the car. At any speed, it would have been impossible to avoid the skater. The broken wrist should have been punishment enough for him, not that he was doing anything wrong other than not lookin both ways before crossing a street.

[Stinkfist]

I have heard of situations such as this where the pedestrian was also sued for damages to the drivers car.

[lchettle]

the vid won't play for me but it looks like the dumb@#$ is riding the wrong way down the street.....

[PMC]

One lady try to run me over in front of my house I call the police and when I told them I was skating they reply skating in the streets in Texas is against the law, they did not even send a police car out or nothing ####### bastards I hate cops