Dear Editor,
Last Wednesday, I was crossing Minoru Boulevard at the Gollner Street pedestrian crosswalk going to the Minoru Residential Care Facility.
I tripped and fell as a result of encountering a lot of uneven levels of asphalt repair on the roadway around the center road median. I fell quite hard onto the road on the palms of my hands, wrists, elbow, both knees and right side neck/shoulder.
As I laid there, two pedestrians and two other people left their stopped cars to see if I was OK. They eventually helped me up and finished walking me across the crosswalk. I tried to thank them all, but everyone quickly went on their ways or back to their cars.
When I returned home an hour later, I phoned the City of Richmond offices to report the accident and the dangerous conditions created by the uneven roadwork.
The rest of my day was quite uneventful, but later, as I walked our dog, several points of soreness on my body kicked in, so much so that I went to my doctor. Multiple x-rays were taken. I did not sleep well for the next two nights and often thought about how nice it was for those people who came without hesitation to my aid. I would have liked to thank you all in person, but in the alternative, I hope my sincere thanks here reaches you all.
PS: This crosswalk has a very short “walk” signal before it turns red. This short signal results in many older people trying to walk faster, shuffle walkers faster or roll wheelchairs faster, while invariably not getting across in time before the pedestrian light changes to red. The city should fix both problems quickly.
Stuart Noble
Richmond
