This past Thursday morning, a black Jeep struck an ongoing IU student riding on a scooter leaving him with severe bodily injuries.
Just before 11 a.m. on Thursday, an IU student was traveling on his scooter while trying to cross the intersections of Woodlawn and 10th Streets on the Bloomington campus. That was when the Jeep collided with the scooter, leaving the student severely bruised.
As police and paramedics responded to the scene before 11:30 a.m. A large crowd of students and citygoers circled the student and tried everything to help him after flying off of the scooter.
Trevor Buechler, WIUX news reporter, witnessed the moment and commented on the incident.
“I saw the car going eastbound on 10th Street strike the scooter driver sending him 10 feet up in the air, and 20 feet out from the spot of the hit.” He said, “Someone else there told me that the scooter driver was going westbound in the bike lane on 10th street and crossed 2 lanes of traffic to turn left towards south Woodlawn right before being hit. The driver did have the right of way as the light was still green when they entered the intersection.”
In addition, he said that there could be dashcam footage shot by a Bloomington Uber driver who drove right by the incident as it was occurring, but that footage has not been released yet.
Following the incident, police questioned the driver of the black Jeep about what caused the accident to occur. They administered her a field sobriety test on sight, in which she passed. There is no word at this time whether the driver of the Jeep has been arrested for the accident.
The student was rushed to a nearby hospital with severe bodily injuries.
In the past four weeks, this accident has been one of multiple incidents involving students and pedestrians riding bikes getting struck by cars and buses on the IU Bloomington campus.
Drivers passing to and from the IU campus should be mindful of allowing students to cross intersections with their bicycles. All drivers should give room for bike lanes, and always keep a watchful eye out on students, staff, and pedestrians walking to get from one place to another.
Students are advised to keep a close eye on where to cross during heavy traffic and watch for any other pedestrians or buses driving across the streets of the IU campus.
