Driver Who Broke Runner’s Spine in Three Places Praised for Waiting Around Until Help Arrived
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The driver of a pickup truck remained on the scene and cooperated with police after hitting a local runner yesterday, Dumb Runner has learned, earning lavish praise from both law enforcement and reporters covering the story.
The driver, Marty DiBergi, 37, “collided with” the runner, identified as Robert Reiner, 56, around 7:00 a.m. Tuesday, according to numerous media reports. Reiner was running on the shoulder of the road at the time of the “accident,” they said, facing the flow of traffic.
Reiner, whose spine was broken in three places, was not wearing bright clothing, they stressed.
DiBergi stopped upon realizing he had hit something, police said, and chose to stay with the broken and bleeding body of the victim rather than flee—a detail echoed by at least two online articles and one local TV news segment on the “accident.”
“The driver remained at the scene and is cooperating with police,” read an official police statement and the news reports, whose authors apparently copied and pasted entire segments of the statement for their articles, whose headlines (“Jogger Hit by Truck”) employed the passive voice and portrayed the vehicle as an independent actor.
It remains unclear how fast DiBergi was driving or whether he was using his phone when he hit Reiner. Reporters covering the incident did not characterize the design of the road (straight, wide, and with no traffic-calming measures) or of the vehicle DiBergi was driving (a 7,000-pound truck whose grill came to Reiner’s shoulders), or mention how many pedestrians have been injured or killed on the stretch of road in question (at least eight over the past five years).
They did mention that DiBergi was “shaken” and bewildered.
“He came out of nowhere,” DiBergi said, referring to Reiner. “Just darted right out in front of me.”
Reiner—who, police noted, was not wearing a neon-colored, reflective safety vest—was in a medically induced coma and unable to comment.
