The Jacksonville Sheriffs Office is searching for a tractor trailer truck following a Monday morning accident that left a 63-year-old man in a wheelchair, Thomas J. Jackson, with life threatening injuries at West 8th and North Pearl streets. The truck continued north on North Pearl Street without stopping.
The truck, with red cab and white cargo box, was making a right turn onto North Pearl Street when the accident occured minutes before 11 a.m., police said. The man and his electric wheelchair were still on the sidewalk, traffic homicide Sgt. Donald Washington said.
"As the tractor trailer made the right turn the rear wheels jumped the curb and went over the sidewalk and struck the pedestrian," Washington said. "The tractor trailer continued northbound on Pearl Street. It is unknown if the driver knew that he had hit the pedestrian."
The victim was taken to UF Health hospital, just a few blocks away and remains in critical condition at UF Health Jacksonville, according to hospital officials.
Meanwhile, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office is still searching for the truck that hit Jackson.
Jackson was only nine blocks from his home when a truck with a red cab and dirty white trailer with cursive blue or black writing on its rear doors drove over the curb, police said. Its rear tires rolled onto the sidewalk's corner and hit Jackson, knocking him from his wheelchair.
A gold-colored vehicle whose driver apparently saw the accident followed and attempted to get its driver to stop, police said. Now police are asking the driver of that gold vehicle as well as anyone with information on the truck to contact the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office at (904) 630-0500.
