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Hey, asshole.
Yeah—-talking to you, guy who didn’t shovel his sidewalk after 35 inches of snow.
Asa Fukuhara, a 32-year-old Agriculture Department engineer, died yesterday in Prince George’s County after he was likely forced to walk in the street because snow blocked his path.
Think about that next time you decide Mother Nature to take care of your walk-clearing duties, please.
Perhaps the admonition here is overdramatic. The stretch of sidewalk in question was next to a well-traveled thoroughfare; the rundown occurred on Branch Avenue just outside the D.C. line, not far from the Branch Avenue Metro station that was Fukuhara’s destination.
Sgt. Michelle Reedy of the Prince George’s County Police says the collision occurred on a stretch of road where the sidewalk ends and becomes what she describes as a “well-worn footpath.” There is some dispute, she says, whether the state or country or someone else would have been responsible for clearing the path.
But at the end of the day, the lesson’s clear: not upholding the urban compact and clearing a path for your neighbors can have consequences.
Now this message isn’t mainly meant for Joe Homeowner, it’s also meant for businesses and governmental bodies who are responsible for vast stretches of sidewalk that never see a shovel. If you don’t do you part, lives are in danger. And specifically for you governments out there: Spending all your resources to clear streets without lifting a finger for pedestrians is a mistake.
The hit-and-run driver is still at large.