Kaare Weineke, the co-owner of Bethesda Scooters & Boards, was driving his motor scooter down Wisconsin Avenue on Saturday night when a car struck him in an intersection.
“He turned right in to me … didn’t stop, didn’t yield,” Weineke said. “The last thing I remember is thinking this guy is not going to turn in front of me, then it was lights out.”
He was thrown over the car and left with an array of injuries, including a broken nose, broken toe, at least one broken rib, multiple lacerations and a dislocated shoulder. He said he needed 60 stitches and will have to see a plastic surgeon. His 49cc scooter was totaled.
The other driver left the scene, but turned himself in at about 1 a.m. at the 2nd District police station in Bethesda.
Weineke’s injuries after the crash. Via Kaare Weineke
“He left me for dead,” Weineke said. “I flew over his vehicle, I don’t remember anything except people saying ‘stay down,’ the blood was just going down my throat, I kind of caught my breath.”
The crash happened at 11:20 p.m. at the intersection of Wisconsin and Norfolk avenues—about two blocks away from Weineke’s shop on Fairmont Avenue.
Capt. Paul Starks, a Montgomery County police spokesman, said the driver of passenger car was attempting to turn when it struck Weineke’s scooter.
Starks said the driver was “scared and left the scene and later realized the right thing to do was to go back.”
Starks said police were not yet able to provide the name of the driver on Tuesday afternoon.
The driver of the car was considered at fault. He was issued traffic citations related to a hit-and-run crash and leaving the scene of a personal injury without offering aid or exchanging information, Starks said. The citation is a traffic-related offense in Maryland rather than a criminal charge, but still carries the possibility of jail time.