Still no details or possible charges from city police after that traffic accident Tuesday that saw a disabled man on a mobility scooter hit by an SUV.
See: Man struck today on McKeown was on mobility scooter
However, witness accounts are starting to fill in the blanks.
Michelle McKillop of North Bay was driving her van along McKeown when the accident happened. She says the female driver of the car was turning right onto McKeown from Champlain.
"I can't understand how she didn't see him. I noticed he was in his chair pushing the button to get the walking man signal, then a few seconds later he proceeded onto the road and she hit him. The incredible thing was she turned and hit him and absolutely didn't slow down for an entire van length."
McKillop says even when the driver got out she left the SUV in drive and it was only the man in the mobility scooter under the grill of the car stopping it from going forward as the vehicle was left in drive. McKillop says she was the one who put the vehicle in park and turned it off after the woman left the SUV to see what she had hit.
"I don't know if she was in shock. She smashed into this thing at a good speed. I jumped out of my van and I was the first person to get to him (the victim) and I held his hand to comfort him and said 'You're going to be ok. Help is coming'. He looked at me and he was really quite dazed. He was responsive with his eyes but nothing else so I kept talking with him and held his hand and patted his leg.
"The driver came around while I was talking to him and I don't think she'd realized she hit a person. She was calm at this point like she'd hit a garbage can or something else on the road. Then she saw that it was a person and then she just lost it. She crumpled and she was screaming and crying."
Another bystander, a woman came over to assist by holding the man's head steady.
"He was panicking by now and so we sat with him and held his hand, and then I noticed blood on my hand and that was traumatizing for me, but then the ambulance arrived."
It was only then McKillop turned the vehicle off.
"I didn't even realize it was running (still in drive) until a man came over and said 'Is this car running?' so I ran over to the other side he said 'check and see if the car is running and if it is in park' and I said 'no, it's in drive' and he held the car while I put it in park and turned it off."
She agrees that had that not been done, since it was only the scooter keeping the SUV from rolling forward, other people could have been injured.
The victim, Jim Peters remains in hospital. His son Shawn says his father is seriously injured but is stable.
