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Scooter wreck kills music lover

A car hits the man on his "Cadillac" at a Town 'N Country intersection.

By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published June 14, 2006

TOWN 'N COUNTRY - Joseph A. Way called his scooter his "Cadillac."

At 81, he rode it everywhere: to Winn-Dixie, to Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz, to the doctor, to see his girlfriend and, almost always, to play piano for anyone who would listen.

But the sight of him rolling along busy streets worried his friend Alicia, 64, who shared the same last name: "I knew that scooter was going to bring him trouble."

Way died Tuesday morning after he was hit by a car as he tried to cross Waters Avenue at Northbridge Boulevard, Hillsborough sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.

He was traveling south in the crosswalk against a red traffic light when he was struck by a 1996 Nissan Maxima driven by Eric Antoine Brown, 28, Carter said.

After the crash at 10:20 a.m., paramedics took Way to Town & Country Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

He lived for his music, friends said.

In his room at Rocky Creek Villages assisted living facility, he had a mini recording studio, where he taped his piano tunes to cheer friends. Country music was his favorite, but he could play anything.

When he lived at Fountainview Estates mobile home park before moving about a five-minute scooter ride away, he was sort of a social director, playing music and singing for anyone and everyone.

"He was like a little Guy Lombardo," said Judy Thomas, a nurse who helped Way through rehabilitation several years ago, after he lost a leg to diabetes. "He was the entertainer."

After surgery, Thomas said, only the delivery of a portable piano rescued him from depression.

The song he played for his nurse was When Irish Eyes Are Smiling. He won her over forever.

He was a beefy man, suntanned from his travels, and he wore glasses and a ball cap to cover his thinning hair.

"He was so happy," said Alicia Way, who met him at Fountainview Estates. "He would come by my door and honk his scooter."

Thomas said Tuesday night that she was having a hard time understanding how her friend died. He had been riding scooters for about four years and loved the freedom they gave him. He had two. The one he wasn't riding was always back home charging.

"The miles he would put on that scooter a lot of people would not put on their cars," said Thomas, who said she would spot him all over town. "Every time I saw a scooter, I would slow down because it might be him."

Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

[Last modified June 14, 2006, 05:32:59]