The 32-year-old skateboarder who was injured Tuesday when he was hit by a metal recycling truck on Mill Plain Boulevard remains in critical condition.
Vancouver Police Department spokeswoman Kim Kapp identified the man in an email Wednesday as Jordan Z. Tibbetts.
Officers responded to the crash about 2:40 p.m. Initial reports indicated Tibbetts was skateboarding north on D Street when he entered Mill Plain and was hit by the truck.
Witnesses told police the skateboarder lost control coming down the hill on D Street, and at the intersection with Mill Plain, he “flew in front of the eastbound truck, and the truck hit him,” Kapp said.
Police said the truck driver cooperated and there were no indications he was impaired. Kapp said nothing in the continuing investigation has changed those details.
Mike Lindblad said he was driving behind the recycling truck and another car, on his way home to Beaverton, Ore., when he “saw what I thought was a bird, something whiz by,” and then both vehicles in front stopped.
Lindblad maneuvered around the truck and car. That’s when he looked in his rearview mirror and saw a man pinned under one of the truck’s front wheels.
He parked his truck and returned to the crash to help, he said. The truck driver stood outside, his hands placed on his head, looking at the injured man for a moment before backing the truck off the man, Lindblad said.
Tibbetts lay unconscious on the road; Lindblad thought it best to try and comfort the man by telling him help was on the way, hoping Tibbetts may hear him, he said.
Tibbetts was bleeding from the ear. There were skid marks up the left side of his body to his shoulder. Many areas of the trunk of his body were red with road rash, Lindblad said.
When the injured man awoke, the situation changed. Tibbetts appeared to be in shock, said Lindblad, and he began flailing around and trying to get up. It seemed the skateboarder was unaware of what happened.
Lindblad, who is 6 feet tall and weighs about 200 pounds, had difficulty keeping the man from moving. He didn’t want Tibbetts to further injure himself, he said.
“His left shoulder was pretty squashed,” Lindblad said.
Vancouver police who arrived a short time later instructed Lindblad to keep holding down Tibbetts, who by that time was asking officers for something to ease his pain, said Lindblad.
At one point, Tibbetts sat up and then stood. He started walking toward the back of the truck, but responders asked him to stay put before restraining him and taking him away in an ambulance.
“I’m still shocked just thinking about it. It’s not something you see every day,” Lindblad said.
There was a second incident involving a skateboarder and a car Wednesday morning at the intersection of Southeast McGillivray Boulevard and Village Loop.
Vancouver police Traffic Unit Sgt. Therese Kubala said the car bumped into the skateboarder, who suffered scrapes but was up and walking around.
