SPOKANE, Wash. – After being hit by a car while riding his motorized scooter in downtown Spokane, and following the deaths of two women who were hit and killed in June and July, 37-year-old Gerrad Blomstrom is calling for safer roads and streets for all types of pedestrians across the city.
“I got lucky, most people aren’t,” Blomstrom said.
On July 12, according to a collision report, Blomstrom was riding his scooter down the Monroe sidewalk before coming to the intersection with Sprague. There, he had the right of way to cross the crosswalk, but when he did, a man driving his car down Monroe turned right onto Sprague and hit Blomstrom.
“Just a normal day, I always look left and right, make sure nobody is going to come and just happened to be at the wrong place, wrong time,” Blomstrom said.
It’s an increasing pattern on the roads in Spokane.
According to the Spokane Police Department (SPD), the driver of the car was ticketed for failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk. SPD is not investigating the collision further, yet Blomstrom is passionate about the city making pivotal change.
“Something has to be done about these pedestrians getting hit,” he said. “Almost every day somebody gets hit because somebody’s not paying attention.”
Fortunately, Blomstrom didn’t join the list of pedestrian fatalities, however, that list is growing. And after years of using his motorized scooter to get to work, Blomstrom doesn’t plan on picking it back up again.
“I don’t even want to ride my scooter now, I’m so scared of it,” he said.
On July 3, to promote safe roads and streets She was 73 years old.
A couple weeks after that in early July, She was only 23.
“Our streets must be re-engineered with the primary goal of keeping people safe,” Mayor Brown said.
The mayor plans to have Spokane Police install more automated traffic cameras in high collision intersections and high-speed areas.
“We have advocacy on behalf of community organizations and now it’s time to pull all that together and make it unacceptable for these accidents to occur,” she said.
As for Blomstrom, he has a broken collar bone, broken toe, sprained wrist, infected eye, and lots of road rash. The doctors said he’s lucky to be alive, because he wasn’t wearing a helmet.
Grateful to be alive to tell his story, Blomstrom hopes no more people need to be severely injured, or killed, for change to happen in Spokane.
“People need to pay attention: just slow down when you go to turn, double check your surroundings,” Blomstrom said. “Anybody can get hit, it doesn’t matter who it is.”
A fundraiser is online for Blomstrom to help him pay for medical expenses, as he recovers from his injuries. If you feel the desire to help, you can visit his Facebook page to find the link to donate.
