Fatal aftermath to act of kindness
A motorist acting as a Good Samaritan and a man in a wheelchair were struck and killed early this morning on the Vine Street Expressway after the motorist stopped his vehicle to help the disabled man on the busy Center City thoroughfare, police said.
A motorist acting as a Good Samaritan and a man in a wheelchair were struck and killed early this morning on the Vine Street Expressway after the motorist stopped his vehicle to help the disabled man on the busy Center City thoroughfare, police said.
Joseph Kelly Sr., 55, was traveling eastbound on the expressway about 1:50 a.m. when he spotted the man in the wheelchair stuck on the expressway's outer eastbound lane near the 15th Street off-ramp. The wheelchair was facing traffic heading in the wrong direction. It was not immediately clear why the man in the wheelchair was on the expressway or how he had become stuck.
Kelly stopped his minivan on the right shoulder, got out of his vehicle and crossed three lanes of traffic to offer help to the wheelchair-bound man, police said.
As Kelly pushed the wheelchair back toward the right shoulder, another vehicle slowed to a crawl in the expressway's center lane to avoid hitting them, police said.
When the vehicle in the center lane came to a full stop, a black pickup truck swerved to avoid it. The pickup sideswiped the stopped vehicle, slammed into the expressway's elevated median and ricocheted into the motorist pushing the wheelchair, killing both men instantly, police said.
Police have yet to identify the wheelchair-bound man, who was approximately 40 years old and homeless.
An advocate for the chronically homeless said she has received reports in the past about a wheelchair-bound man on the expressway, but did not know the identity of this morning's victim.
Accident investigators interviewed the driver of the pickup truck this morning but have not filed any charges against him.
