Pedestrian danger: What it means when you get hit by a car

I'm getting a whole lot of "Amens" this morning to today's column on pedestrians being one of the root causes of Central Florida's moniker as the most dangerous area in the country for people on foot.

To say this is a serious issue is an understatement. The reason I have written about transportation and pedestrian issues at least three times so far this year is because most of these cases aren't a matter of a pedestrian getting hit, having their arm set in a cast and going on about their business.

For too many people, it's far messier and more complicated than that.

I wanted to know just what these accidents mean to people so I called a guy who sees it first hand every single day.

Dr. John Promes is the medical director of the trauma unit at Orlando Health's ORMC.

Pedestrians hurt by cars "are one of our top three types of injuries that we see," he said, along with people injured in vehicle vs. vehicle accidents and falls.

Promes has seen it so often he can recount exactly what happens to the human body when it's struck by a car or truck.

The bumper and the hood typically hit the person's legs and hips, meaning broken bones in those areas are very common.

"Depending on how fast the car is going, the patient can be thrown and then head injuries and internal injuries are quite common," he said.

"People think just broken bones by themselves," he added. "But if there are injuries to the blood vessels or major tissue damage then there could be amputation ... Patients do lose limbs from these sort of things."

The injuries can be complicated, sometimes taking months to recover from or worse.

"Some patients are permanently disabled because of this," he said. "They are unable to go back to their livelihoods."

All because, in most cases, somebody (either the pedestrian or the driver) wasn't paying attention or made a terrible judgment call that could have so easily been avoided.

And those are just the physical injuries. Living with the knowledge that you killed or badly injured someone -- even if by accident -- is an enormous burden to carry.

In the column, I mentioned the case of a 64-year-old woman in Winter Springs who was killed earlier this morning crossing Red Bug Lake Road. The 19-year-old driver who hit her wasn't at fault, but was inconsolable.

"Some people you can look at and tell they will never be the same again," said Sgt. Kim Montes, who was on the accident scene for Florida Highway Patrol.