On Tuesday morning of this week, I was on my normal walk with friends on Balao Road.  On our way up the hill towards the Cricket Club, we noticed a few people stopped and looking after someone on the ground.  It turned out the man we had passed walking earlier had been hit by a car.  When we arrived he was being taken care of by a runner and two bikers who had stopped to help him.

The man's arm was badly hurt and most likely severely broken.  An ambulance had been called and the police were on the way.  But it was then I thought, "where was the car that hit him?"  Ahhhh, NOWHERE. They had hit him, slowed down, and then taken off! The car had hit him so hard that their wing mirror had broken off and was laying on the ground with some other debris.  The gentleman turned out to be a neighbor of mine and we all stayed with him until the ambulance arrived.

The gentleman is still in the hospital today and underwent surgery yesterday for what I understood was two very bad breaks in his arm.  There has been nothing in the papers about this hit and run and I have contacted the police to ask them to please advise the public.  The driver of this car needs to do his civic duty and turn himself in and live up to life's consequences.  If anyone knows who it is, they need to turn them into the police as we are all in this moral fight together.  This man's life has been traumatized over the last few days for trying to exercise and improve his life.

Additionally walkers, runners, bikers and drivers need to be cognizant of each other.  Those of us who run or walk early due to low traffic numbers need to wear brighter colors so we can be seen (reflective gear is best) and walk towards traffic when a path is not available.  Drivers must note that walkers, runners and bikers are on roads early in the morning and they need to drive around them, or slow down!  People who exercise try to stay off major highways but when they need to be on them they tend to do this on dual carriage ways, allowing drivers to go into the alternate lane.  I  hate to say this but women are often the worst drivers who bee line for you when you are on the road exercising.  This must stop. People exercising are only doing so to improve their health.  Drivers need not feel threatened by this.

My friends and I went out to walk today but I have to say it was very scary, every car that passed had us quickly shifting to the middle of the median.  Speaking to other friends about this a good point came up - we need more sidewalks here.  The government has been encouraging exercise and healthy living, it would behoove us all if we had safer roads to do this on.