Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Driver won't face charges in fatality

The accident Wednesday killed an 84-year-old Gulfport woman riding a scooter.

By CURTIS KRUEGER
Published February 3, 2006

SOUTH PASADENA - Massage therapist Colleen Ronnberg had just left work in her Ford Mustang to drive home for lunch. She says she turned on her signal, stopped at an intersection, looked both ways and turned onto Pasadena Avenue.

But somehow her car collided with an 84-year-old woman who was riding a motorized three-wheeled scooter across Pasadena at Hibiscus Avenue. Although a sheriff's deputy later estimated that Ronnberg was driving 5 mph, the other woman was knocked out of her scooter, hit her head and died Wednesday, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said.

Ronnberg is very sorry, still shaken and wishes she could turn back time. "I have to live with the fact for the rest of my life that I killed somebody." But she wishes elderly and disabled people who use these scooters, sometimes called motorized wheelchairs, would be more cautious.

The Sheriff's Office has concluded Ronnberg will not be charged in the accident, which killed Czeslawa Z. Scibora of 2960 59th St. S in Gulfport.

But for anyone who travels through the Tampa Bay area, whether in a car or in a wheelchair, it's a reminder of the dangers people in the scooters face.

"It's obviously something to watch out for," said Lt. Greg Schwemley, who heads the St. Petersburg Police Department's traffic section. "They are low-profile little vehicles, so drivers will obviously have to pay more attention" to them.

"I haven't seen any crashes come across my desk regarding those scooters," Schwemley said, and he is unaware of any similar fatalities in St. Petersburg.

But this was not the first fatal scooter accident in the area. A 91-year-old man died last year in Largo when he pulled out in his electric scooter in front of a sedan on Keene Road. In that case, the driver of the sedan was going below the posted speed limit and was not charged.

Schwemley recommended people use extra caution when driving around downtown areas and near retirement homes where the scooters seem more prevalent.

Sgt. Kenny Orrill, supervisor of the Tampa Police Department traffic unit, says it's safest for people to drive these scooters on sidewalks, and he appreciates those who put tall flags on the scooters to make them more visible when crossing streets.

But state law allows people to ride scooters on roads where the speed limit is 25 or less, on bicycle routes or on "any street or road where bicycles are permitted," Orrill said. Because bicycles are permitted on most roads, that's a hard law to enforce, he said.

People aren't required to have a driver's license to operate these vehicles, which the law defines as "electric personal assistive mobility devices."

Wednesday's accident was still weighing on Ronnberg, 37, whose only blemish on her driving record during the past seven years was a speeding ticket, records show. She canceled her appointments Thursday and stayed home.

Bruce Lutz, 60, a Salvation Army employee who witnessed the accident, said there was nothing Ronnberg could have done.

He said he saw Scibora leave a parking lot traveling fast, faster than Ronnberg's car. As Lutz saw it, Scibora hit the car. He said he had seen Scibora another time at the intersection, darting across traffic and forcing cars on Pasadena to jam their brakes to avoid hitting her. Scibora did not have a driver's license.

[Last modified February 3, 2006, 01:24:20]