Injuries limited to ‘scraped knees and damaged pride’ after downtown Bellingham incident
The Bellingham Police and Fire departments were called to the report of a pedestrian-involved collision in a parking lot in downtown Bellingham Thursday morning.
Though initial emergency radio broadcast reports sounded much more severe, Lt. Claudia Murphy told The Bellingham in an email that “some scraped knees and damaged pride were the extent of injuries.”
Bellingham firefighters were called at 8:14 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, to the intersection of East Champion and North Forest streets for the report of an expanded traffic collision, according to the PulsePoint app. That’s near Mercy Housing’s Eleanor Apartments.
Bellingham Police were also called to the area shortly afterward.
According to unconfirmed emergency radio broadcasts at the time, a beige car was believed to have hit and dragged a pedestrian and crashed into a utility pole in a parking lot near the intersection. The pedestrian was reportedly lying on the ground, while the driver of the vehicle was sitting in the car with the door open.
Arriving fire units confirmed that a person was lying on the ground and a single car appeared to be involved.
Police found that someone was trying to park the car and exited, but the car kept rolling, Murphy reported. The driver attempted to stop the car but fell.
Another person also attempted to jump in the car and stop it, but that car hit a power pole at a “fairly slow speed,” according to Murphy, adding that the incident wasn’t even listed as a collision because it happened on private property.
“This was just an unfortunate set of circumstances, but not at all what was initially reported,” Murphy wrote.
This story was originally published September 15, 2022 at 8:35 AM.
