Twenty-one-year-old Teddy Martins was hospitalized last week after his scooter collided with an oncoming jeep at the intersection of Woodlawn and 10 th.
According to an officer reviewing dash cam footage of the collision, the car’s driver had the right of way and Martins did not appear to check before rapidly crossing left across two lanes into oncoming traffic.
The jeep’s driver told police she didn’t see the scooter when she entered the intersection, driving around 25 miles per hour through a green light.
She immediately braked when she saw Martins, but it was too late to avoid a collision.
The IUPD is continuing its investigation but said it’s not currently pursuing charges. The department also said it’s unable to discuss Martins’ condition. He was hospitalized with a severe head injury.
A dashcam video obtained by The Bloomingtonian shows the collision.
City Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator Hank Duncan observed that the rider’s choices appear to be one factor in the collision, but the bike lane on 10 th makes it difficult for riders to safely turn left.
“You have a scooter rider who's trying to make a left turn, but there's a bike lane on the far-right side of the road, and it's pushing them to the right side and then having to go across the road and make that left turn,” he said.
Duncan also thinks the way people discuss scooter and bike accidents needs to change in Bloomington, focusing less on individual guilt and more on infrastructure design.
“The conversation seems to center around the scooter and the fault of this one crash, rather than the bigger picture of the faults of our transportation system, and that being, cars are dangerous.”
The Indiana State Police are assisting IUPD with the investigation.
