SALINE COUNTY, Kan. (KWCH/Gray News) — A Norwegian man attempting to rollerblade across the U.S. was killed in a hit-and-run in Kansas, officials said.

The Saline County Sheriff’s Office identified the man as 24-year-old Joachim Lanham.

Lanham was documenting his rollerblading journey across the U.S. on Instagram. According to a post from his family, he was hit by an SUV on day 22 of his journey from New York to Los Angeles

  • Sanctus
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    23211 hours ago

    An 82-year-old female said she had been driving a 2013 Ford Edge SUV going west on Country Club Road. She stated that she thought she hit something, turned around to check the area, but didn’t see anything, so she continued her journey home.

    For some reason its normal this lady can drive. Yep, sure thing, we’d help you open a door for worry of your frailty but you can totally chuck an 8 ton hunk of metal down the road.

    • Dr. Moose
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      62 hours ago

      Getting killed by a granny that didn’t even notice the fact that she killed you and drove away home all jolly is some horror movie material.

    • @UnequalExchange@lemmy.world
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      157 minutes ago

      In my opinion I already know there’s gonnabe some landmark study or studies thst comes out that proves thst people at or around the ages of 70-75+ should not be driving at all since people of this age tend to lack coordination , reaction time, and awareness of many of the driving related events happening around them.

      I wish I had compiled it but something Ive noticed is that in hit-and-run stories is thst you will find a disturbingly common trend of seeing that a very old senior ‘hit something or someone’ , ‘never noticed it was there before’, ‘and kept on going cause they thought it was nothing’ .

      There comes an age when you just have to accept thst youre just too old to do some things. Not a single paid athlete in basketball anywhere in the world has been able to stay io that profession past the age of 50… there is a reason for this…

      Never allow your ego to betray your understanding of humanity and your understanding of biology.

      • @UnequalExchange@lemmy.world
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        159 minutes ago

        She reminds me of that one american politicians who murdered a person by driving her car into then in Europe, didnt notice it, and then left europe when charges were brought against her lol.

    • CombatWombat
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      11311 hours ago

      And if you suggest we should add public transit so that 82 year olds have a reasonable option other than driving, everyone acts like you’re ableist as if people whose disabilities make driving more dangerous don’t exist at all.

      • @cloudshouter@lemmy.zip
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        8011 hours ago

        The problem with public transportation in the US is that black people will use it. That means the old white lady is going to fight paying for it and then take her own car anyway.

    • FlashMobOfOneOP
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      6911 hours ago

      Yup, and in many states it’s legal for blind people to own guns.

      When I hear of people like this driver, it reminds me of the quote from Coming to America: “Imagine a country so free one can throw glass in its streets.” It’s meant as a joke in the movie, but for me, it’s actually a really great way to describe our concept of freedom.

      • BillyClark
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        58 hours ago

        I saw a commercial where a blind veteran used those Meta spy glasses everybody hates to ask where the flag was so he could salute it.

        So, “Hey Meta, where is the intruder?”

      • INeedANewUserName
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        -76 hours ago

        Why shouldn’t blind people be allowed to own guns. Transferable machine guns have been a way better investment than bonds for essentially their entire legal existence. There are plenty of legitimate reasons blind people should be allowed to own guns.

        • sem
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          95 hours ago

          Guns shouldn’t be investments either

      • @FartMaster69@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        -3411 hours ago

        Are you implying we need to be more ableist against the visually impaired?

        Blindness is a spectrum not just a binary can see and can’t see.

        • Enkrod
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          32 hours ago

          There need to be tests to determine if somebody is fit to own a gun or operate a vehicle. Part of that test needs to be about visual and mental aquity. Your mind and sight needn’t be perfect, but at some point you are crossing too much into “you can’t be trusted with other peoples safety if you are allowed to operate this instrument of death” and that is where a line needs to be drawn.

          There is nothing ableist about that, it’s a common sense safety measure for the people around you.

    • @mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca
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      128 hours ago

      one sad thing is that, as american vehicles go, a 2013 Edge is not very offensive. sure, it’s not a Corolla, but it’s not a full size

      it’s a CUV with inoffensive tech. not too big, not too heavy, not too blinding or distracting. not that that saved the victim…

      • @Hoimo@ani.social
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        128 minutes ago

        Yeah, I was looking to see what type of street-legal APV allowed her to run over a full adult skater without noticing, but I guess this one was just decent suspension and zero awareness left in her bones.

    • @Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1410 hours ago

      In America, you get at least on free kill with your vehicle. Age is rather irrelevant except she waited longer than others to claim her’s.

      • @Hakuso@scribe.disroot.org
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        68 hours ago

        You’re supposed to be tested when you renew your license, but the renewal period is anywhere from four to twenty-five years, with some places even longer. If you are not renewing your license they neeed an incident to reevaluate your ability to drive.

        On the one hand it’s good that they have less control over locing down the ability of people to move around, especially since we have almost no rail lines, horrible public transit, and roads that are dangerous to bike or walk on.

        On the other… You have to hurt someone, or damage something, in order to be told “Okay, grandpa, time to hang up the keys.”

    • Ex Nummis
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      1911 hours ago

      My own grandfather is a danger on the road. He’s slowly losing his faculties, which is always tragic but doubly so because this was a deep intellectual. But trying to convince him that it’s really time to stop driving has been… a challenge, shall we say. There’s really only so much you can do in a legal sense.

      • @UnequalExchange@lemmy.world
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        155 minutes ago

        Maybe someone should ‘lose his keys’ for him 😘

        Aye , you might be saving his life and the life of like 5 other people on the road 🤷🏿‍♂️

    • @spacegoat@lemmy.world
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      38 hours ago

      If old people are going to be allowed to drive it should have to be smart cars or something, that way if they’re going to fuck around it will be them smeared 200m across the highway, not innocent victims

    • @wheezy@lemmy.ml
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      10 hours ago

      We allow it for the very fact that without a vehicle an 80 year old person is essentially being given a death sentence in most cities in our country.

      I am all for requirements of driver’s license test be met past a certain age. But, we need to acknowledge that it’s not just that. Seniors need alternative methods of transportation. They are driving because that’s all they can do.

      Whether this is basic public transportation or major expansion of senior specific door to door transport systems. We can’t just “ban them”. Because then the problem will just be a bunch of seniors just driving without a license or dying alone in their home because they didn’t get their medication that day.

      • tangeli
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        510 hours ago

        Even an 80 your old person who can’t have food and drugs delivered still does not need to drive a 4000lbs SUV. There are much safer alternatives. We can quite reasonably just “ban them” from driving unnecessarily dangerous vehicles.

    • EbbyA
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      -1011 hours ago

      First, that SUV is 2 ton. That’s an easy search. You’re approaching semi-truck territory here.

      Second, and I’m not siding with her as it could be false, what would you expect someone to do if they returned to a potential collision site and found nothing?

      • @Dozzi92@lemmy.world
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        46 hours ago

        Semis, unloaded, are like five tons, minimum. I guess two tons is approaching, but then so is my sedan at like 3,400 pounds.

        And as fully loaded tractor trailer is like 30 or 40 tons.

        I believe cars are getting too big though.

      • CombatWombat
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        710 hours ago

        That hypothetical would be much more convincing if it had anything to do with the actual facts of the real event that took place.

        • EbbyA
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          9 hours ago

          Yes, hindsight is 20/20. Unfortunately, I can’t see into the future and neither could she.

          • CombatWombat
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            6 hours ago

            There’s no need to be sarcastic; I want you to be more persuasive because I completely agree with you that it is unreasonable to expect private citizens to be able to do things like: notice a full-grown man in rollerblades on the side of a highway, or notice you have collided with a rollerblader, or safely overtake a rollerblader, or notice that the rollerblader is no longer visible and is instead dying on the side of the road. People can’t do this if they are 32 or 82 – there is too much going on with their phones and their infotainment panels and the complex road conditions. You just gotta say it with your whole chest: no-one can reasonably be expected to safely operated a motor vehicle.

            • @UnequalExchange@lemmy.world
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              32 minutes ago

              which is why FuckCars

              If public transit were more common hit and runs like these would be far less common. Cause even if a 32 YO or oldrr person were operating such a vehicle public transport buses pick up on when youre moving too fast and they warn you, AND they probahly send a report bck to your boss, AND they have wider fields of vision cause of their bigger glass screeens so you can see more before you ever get to hit someone, AND because theyre bigger and girthier they tend to accelerate slower so pedestrians can see and interpret what dangerous moves these viehicles are about to make better.