Speed Demon

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I’ve hesitated to touch on this incident with Bob Novak running over a pedestrian and apparently speeding off as though nothing happened. He’s a controversial figure and the case is so weird that it sort of speaks for itself; blogging about something like that is like fishing in a stocked pond — no sport in it.

But looking at the report of what happened, according to the bicyclist who eventually got Novak to stop, David Bono, Novak hit the guy, a 66 year old man walking in cross walk with a walk signal. He told The Politico “a black Corvette convertible with top closed plows into the guy. The guy is sort of splayed into the windshield.”

And Bono didn’t think it was credible that Novak didn’t realize he’d hit the guy. “There was a pedestrian splayed on his windshield — I don’t think there is anyway you can miss that,” Bono said.

Note to that the original report that the victim got off with just some bumps and bruises don’t seem to be quite right. According to ABC’s DC affiliate WJLA

The pedestrian who was struck by prominent Washington columnist and commentator Robert Novak is in worse shape than first thought, a hospital source tells ABC 7 News.

The victim, a 66-year-old man, appeared somewhat incoherent, said the source who had seen the victim. The man appeared to have casts on his neck and back. The victim was X-rayed and a surgical team plans to evaluate him, the source said.

Now, Novak says he didn’t realize he’d hit anyone. And if that’s true it removes a great deal of the moral and potential criminal liability. But it puts in real question whether Novak should be driving a car. If you can be driving through the relatively compact streets of downtown Washington, hit a pedestrian so that he rolls up on to your windshield and then trundles off onto the ground and you don’t notice, should you really be driving?

Think about that. For most of us I think having anything make contact with your car while you’re in motion is very jarring, as it should be. That’s certainly been my experience. And you don’t notice when you plow into a guy and he rolls up on your windshield? I don’t get that.

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