Automobile-pedestrian accidents can happen to almost anyone on foot near vehicle traffic. Every year thousands of people are injured or killed all around the country by passenger cars, commercial delivery trucks and other motor vehicles. Being related to famous or well-known individuals apparently are not immune to the tragic results of a pedestrian traffic accidents.
Just yesterday the nephew of Tibet’s Dalai Lama was struck and killed in an out-of-state pedestrian accident. Such collisions can result in serious and, as in this case, fatal injuries such as broken bones, internal injuries and bleeding, traumatic brain injury and spinal cord damage.
As Maryland and Washington, D.C., personal injury attorneys, we know that even in incidents where a victim survives a deadly car, truck or motorcycle crash, there can be weeks or months of medical treatment, corrective surgeries and physical therapy needed to return the person back to something close to normal functioning. Sadly, only a lucky few escape such violent accidents with little or no medical complications.
In the case of, 45-year-old Jigme Norbu, emergency responders arriving at the site of the Monday night crash pronounced the Tibetan rights advocate dead at the scene. According to news reports, the Valentine’s Day accident happened along a stretch of Florida highway during one of Norbu’s numerous long walks organized to raise awareness of the Tibetan struggle for independence from neighboring China.
Norbu was reportedly walking south with his back to traffic along the highway’s white line. The walk was part of “Walk for Tibet” that was to cover 300 miles from St. Augustine south to West Palm Beach. The activist was hit from behind by a passenger vehicle driven by 31-year-old Keith O’Dell. O’Dell had his five-year-old sin riding with him in the vehicle at the time of the accident.
Reports indicate that the area in which the fatal accident occurred was not well lit; there was no mention of whether Norbu was wearing reflective clothing but according to a local resident, that area is pitch black after dark.
At the time of the news reports, police had not charged O’Dell with any violations in connection with the crash. Both the driver and his young son were uninjured as a result of the traffic accident.
Tibetan center prays for Dalai Lama nephew, OrlandoSentinel.com, February 15, 2011