SALINE COUNTY, Kan. (KWCH/Gray News) — A Norwegian man attempting to rollerblade across the U.S. was killed in a hit-and-run in Kansas, officials said.
The Saline County Sheriff’s Office identified the man as 24-year-old Joachim Lanham.
Lanham was documenting his rollerblading journey across the U.S. on Instagram. According to a post from his family, he was hit by an SUV on day 22 of his journey from New York to Los Angeles
We let 82 year olds drive
“An 82-year-old female said she had been driving a 2013 Ford Edge SUV going west on Country Club Road. She stated that she thought she hit something, turned around to check the area, but didn’t see anything, so she continued her journey home.”
As someone that once accidentally hit a cat whilst driving an SUV, I cannot fathom how anyone could hit anything as large a human and be unsure if something was struck.
I watched as Chad Caruso skateboarded the US and I was scared for him the entire way. It’s such a huge gamble.
It really is.
I’ve had cars going the other way on a road slow down to yell at and intimidate me, even though I’m on the other side of the road and observing traffic laws. I wear a motorcycle helmet, in part, for fear that one day one of these nutjobs will throw something at me. The entitlement is absolutely bonkers.
I was on my bicycle one time, on a road that was plenty wide enough for a car to pass me with the required minimum space of four feet while staying in their lane. A car passed me going way farther to the left of me than they needed to, forcing a van that was coming in the opposite direction to pull over to the curb and stop. As he passed me, the van driver stuck himself halfway out his window and started yelling at me “you’re gonna get somebody killed!” Asshole, go yell at the driver of the other car, I didn’t do shit. And all that happened is it took you an extra five seconds to get to the red light.
Where I live, 99.9% of drivers are cool and give cyclists plenty of room. But that 0.1% means I’m probably risking my life every time I go for a ride.
Motorists do love to yell that, ironically, when they should be paying attention to the road.
What a pure-hearted dream, crushed by the worst country in the world. Of course it would happen in Kansas.
Forest Gump was a lie :/
This is horrible… but also somehow even more sad that I would have totally expected this. Trying to go cross country on rollerblades in the US is akin to entering a warzone with a target on your back. This country is not friendly to non-car commuters. I live in a dense suburb with some bikelanes and its bad enough, so I cannot imagine what its like in places with huge stroads and highways running through town. You can barely cross a street let alone travel on rollerblades or bikes…
Same. I’m fortunate that there are a ton of residential roads I can use to get where I’m going, and in the main city corridor there are bike lanes protected (mostly) by curbs, but I’ve had dozens of cars just stray into my bike lane when pulling out of McDonald’s or trying to cross a main road, and culturally, I’m well aware that it’s on me to make sure I’m the on ensuring my safety and not the asshole behind the two-ton death machine.
All because of stupid North American car companies and their “bigger is more money” philosophy.
“An 82-year-old female said she had been driving a 2013 Ford Edge SUV going west on Country Club Road. She stated that she thought she hit something, turned around to check the area, but didn’t see anything, so she continued her journey home.”
Well at least she was nice and safe in her rolling fortress.
82-year-old
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK
I’ve read horror stories told by acquaintances from Japan about old people there driving and usually finding themselves crashing into things, crashing into cars, cyclists, pedestrians, or worse. There’s been talk among Japanese about setting limits to drivers older than 60 or 70.
82 YEAR OLD? I think my grandpa died at around that age, they’re letting this person drive?
It’s Kansas. If she can’t drive she literally cannot leave her home…
But I’m sure there are taxis in Kansas.
And thank god we don’t ever test people again after giving them access to killing machines
I hate everything about this story, fuck car culture so much
At least she turned herself in. I’m not sure I would’ve had enough courage and selfrespect to do that.
I hope she feels like shit and sees consequences for making a half-assed attempt at identifying what she hit. She could at least get out of the vehicle ffs. He might have been able to be saved.
Slim chances of her seeing real consequences. The easiest way to get away with murder in the US is to do it with a car.
You are saying the planned to run him over. How do you back that up?
I agree that she made a terrible mistake. She should have to pay restitution to the family, get jail time and probably never drive again. But murder is a whole different thing. You might as well charge her with genocide.
Calling a Ford Edge a “rolling fortress” is a bit of a stretch
It sure feels like it when it’s wooshing past you at highway speed on a bicycle.
Calling it a pollution powered people crusher is a pretty accurate assessment tho.
Maybe if we had decent public transport, we could take away elderly licenses without restricting their freedom.
I drive through Saline county regularly. A decent chunk of their tax revenue comes from erroneous traffic tickets. I don’t think Salina has A bus, not to mention about 10% of the population is rural, as it sounds like this woman was.
Ofc its a fucking hit and run too like what the fuck. We remember people out here being like “ban cars? You don’t mean outright right? Haha” no we mean it, we hate cars, ban them we hate them so fucking much dude. Yeah there’s a time or place for them but there needs to be proper safe routes for pedestrians and bikers and cars need to be straight up banned in certain areas.
Ps: all our thoughts and care to the family, really sorry for your son. He was doing what he loved.
Yeah it takes a legend to go on an adventure like that.
Vila i frid broder.
Fuck this sucks.
Here’s an article about him skating 5,500km across Australia:
I am too terrified to ride a bike 20km to the next town. I could probably do a quarter of it on paths. Perhaps a bit more bush bashing. But the highway sections seems like certain death. I envy places that are connected with paths. Huge respect for this guy.
Are you in australia?
I’ve done a bit of long distance riding here.
Bush tracks are ok, but be very, very mindful of snakes. Bush bashing is generally a bad idea. You’ll pick up ticks from foliage, and snakes can’t feel your vibrations and you can’t see them soooo…
Being on the road is generally ok, but a wing mirror is essential. You really need to be able to see traffic approaching behind you.
Cars can move around you but for road trains I just get off the road and stop on the shoulder. They’re too wide to leave any room for you, and the “bow wave” of air pushes you away, but then the void behind them pulls you on to be road, ready to be collected by the traffic following.
What’s a road train?
A truck with three trailers.
Welp, “bike touring Australia” is now officially off of my bucket list. Thank you for that
Actually funny thing I realized is that when I tried to go the next city over from the city I live in the safest paths were the forests and park paths . EVen unofficial paths were a better option, as in forests paths that shouldnt have a path but so many homeless people and drifters there go along thst path so often that the path has now been beaten into the ground and now its just there permanently.
Snakes are a real problem on narrow trails in Australia. On a bike they can’t sense the vibrations from your footfalls so they can’t get out of your way.
Also mobile / cell coverage is patchy. If you get bit then walking / riding is the worst thing you can do, but if you don’t have cell coverage then you’re cooked.
No way in hell would I walk , bike (motor bike even) , scooter, any form of transportation other than in a tank a disrance of 20KM or over. Especially if Im going the next city over.
The problem is two fold cause the drivers in north america are inherently bad and they think theyre better drivers than they are. BUT THEN ALSO the infrastucture in most of north america is car centric so when you go to a dangerous a crossing or a dangerous path …that path was probably made for cars , large emergency vehicles, large constructiin vehicles or military vehicles… that path was not made for cyclisrs or pedestrians. So youre rolling a loaded dice against your favour any time you go near paths like this without a tank of your own lol
If I wanted to travel such distances? Unless there is a ‘no car policy’ there and its blocked off ffrom all sides by authorities or Im travelling via a city bus or a train? Im not going. Sorry.
I cycled across Kansas when I was a teenager, in 1971 (yeah, I know, that was a long-ass time ago). I had no problem with cars or trucks. Some curious locals did ask me “why are you doing that?” and once I had to wait 20 minutes for a herd of cattle to cross the road. But that was a long time ago, when cycling was less popular, Kansas politics were pragmatic, the locals friendly, and road rage unheard of. Now, when I go there, people seem pissed off all the time and the state and local governments are malicious. Also, meth and rabid fundamentalism.
One of the best things my parents ever did was leave that state.
I did that ride during a family visit back, training for a ride from Los Angeles to Sonoma County that I ended up not doing. Instead, I got into cycling in the San Gabriels. Now, well past 60, I’ve started bike touring in Europe, where drivers are generally less inclined to kill you, though it does still happen. Also, there are car-free (with a few exceptions) cross-European cycle routes.
Dang man, there were only 3 billion humans on this planet when you did that.
FUCK CARS…especially fuck that this asshole won’t suffer anything worse than a slap on the wrist for KILLING someone.
On the other hand, isn’t an 82 year old hurtling around in 2 tons of metal with only a vague idea of what’s happening outside that box… normal?
Why single out this woman, when there are millions just like her who are only different in that thus far, by sheer luck, they haven’t happened to kill anyone? This one won the murder lottery, millions more bought a ticket.
I would like to welcome you to America, where everything is made up and the points don’t matter. I wish this was funny
I’m assuming you don’t drive, and hopefully you never do.
I think you’re missing the point here. The individual is not the issue. The fact that any 82 year old is hurtling around in 2 tons of metal oblivious to the world outside is the issue (or at least part of it). Do you think this woman is some kind of exceptional case?
My gradfather drove far into his 90s, and only stopped when he became deaf. Never hurt anyone or did anything unsafe. The obliviousness really depends on the person.
I do favor frequent testing for older drivers, though. When things go wrong, it can happen suddenly and people are often in denial about their continuing fitness to drive.
My grandfather also drove into his 90s and had no accidents. However, he had macular degeneration and struggled to see. The DMV knew he couldn’t see well and still granted him extension after extension. We had to sit him down and talk him into giving up the car because the DMV would’ve let him keep going until somebody got hurt.
Frequent testing for the elderly would definitely save lives.
I agree totally about the testing. Old people often drive until an accident or near miss demonstrates their inability to continue. When you live in a world where driving is a necessity, of course people will push themselves to do it until they reach a point of failure.
I’ve been yelling it into the void since the 90s - Mandatory Annual Testing After Sixty-Five. And not the book test. Get in a car and drive with a human who can gauge your ability and mark any decline.
I’d like to see that and also re-testing maybe every 5 or 10 years for young and middle-aged drivers. Both book and practical, because people forget the finer points of the rules and also sometimes new ones get made (e.g. new NACTO recommendations for cycling infrastructure).
…i don’t give a fuck if she’s 82, that just means she shouldn’t have been driving in the first place.
Im gonna keep it 💯with you , you are able and within your right to think that it doesnt matter that she’s 82 .
But in my opinion I already know there’s gonnabe some landmark study or studies thst comes out that proves thst people at or around the ages of 70-75+ should not be driving at all since people of this age tend to lack coordination , reaction time, and awareness of many of the driving related events happening around them.
I wish I had compiled it but something Ive noticed is that in hit-and-run stories is thst you will find a disturbingly common trend of seeing that a very old senior ‘hit something or someone’ , ‘never noticed it was there before’, ‘and kept on going cause they thought it was nothing’ .
There comes an age when you just have to accept thst youre just too old to do some things. Not a single paid athlete in basketball anywhere in the world has been able to stay io that profession past the age of 50… there is a reason for this…
Never allow your ego to betray your understanding of humanity and your understanding of biology.
I have known plenty of 90 year olds who could drive fine, this woman hadn’t been physically tested for probably 20 years.
In Murica? How the hell is she going to the pharmacy 5km away to buy her 500$ prescription? Take the non-existing public transit?
Everything gets delivered in today’s gig economy. If you can’t tell if you’ve hit a full grown man while driving - trade your car in and take an uber to your appointments.
Getting controlled medications delivered is complicated
Ngl that’s what door dashing should be used for, not for lazy people to order a 5 dollar burger for 20 dollars
An 82-year-old female said she had been driving a 2013 Ford Edge SUV going west on Country Club Road. She stated that she thought she hit something, turned around to check the area, but didn’t see anything, so she continued her journey home.
For some reason its normal this lady can drive. Yep, sure thing, we’d help you open a door for worry of your frailty but you can totally chuck an 8 ton hunk of metal down the road.
Holy shit, a blind old lady driving a giant SUV kills a pedestrian and keeps driving…
Americans: “Yeah, that’s normal.”
Getting killed by a granny that didn’t even notice the fact that she killed you and drove away home all jolly is some horror movie material.
And if you suggest we should add public transit so that 82 year olds have a reasonable option other than driving, everyone acts like you’re ableist as if people whose disabilities make driving more dangerous don’t exist at all.
The problem with public transportation in the US is that black people will use it. That means the old white lady is going to fight paying for it and then take her own car anyway.
This is the answer.
I live in a conservative area and I’ve literally gotten political fliers in the mail from two different republican local campaigns bickering over who’s the most against public transportation.
One of them said “So-and-so would fund a new bus station that would allow those people from the city to come to our town!”
The other one’s response was basically “Whats-his-face is a liar! So-and-so only suggested funding and renovation of an existing bus station which doesn’t have a route to the city. It wouldn’t bring those people from the city here at all!”
To me, reading that just felt like the entire county’s racism on full display…
Um what??? What in the classist world did i read???
Describing other people’s classism is not itself classist.
Also the statement was more about racism than class, anyway
There are those who would downplay the difference, but that’s a discussion for a different community. (In general, at least. The effects of environmental racism on transportation/land use/urbanism specifically would be on-topic, however.)
You’re not wrong.
She belongs in congress.
She reminds me of that one american politicians who murdered a person by driving her car into then in Europe, didnt notice it, and then left europe when charges were brought against her lol.
Sounds like Anne Sacoolas, who forgot which side of the road to drive on in the UK, killed someone, and then got spirited away to live life consequence free: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Harry_Dunn
But the US has a proud tradition of such. Only last month they whisked someone to safety in the US rather than have them arrested for kiddy porn: https://nypost.com/2026/09/13/world-news/us-diplomat-extracted-from-london-after-feds-allegedly-discover-child-porn/
Yup, and in many states it’s legal for blind people to own guns.
When I hear of people like this driver, it reminds me of the quote from Coming to America: “Imagine a country so free one can throw glass in its streets.” It’s meant as a joke in the movie, but for me, it’s actually a really great way to describe our concept of freedom.
At least blind gun owners won’t shoot based on skin colour.
I saw a commercial where a blind veteran used those Meta spy glasses everybody hates to ask where the flag was so he could salute it.
So, “Hey Meta, where is the intruder?”
That’s such a wild mental image, I could imagine it in a movie
Aim 15° right and 5° up
Hero name: Deadeyes
Why shouldn’t blind people be allowed to own guns. Transferable machine guns have been a way better investment than bonds for essentially their entire legal existence. There are plenty of legitimate reasons blind people should be allowed to own guns.
No there aren’t, lmfao
Guns shouldn’t be investments either
Ironically, the guns the other commenter is talking about became investments because the ban on them restricted the supply.
<moderator hat on>
But that’s getting off-topic, so if anybody reading this wishes to discuss guns further please start a thread in a different community.
Are you implying we need to be more ableist against the visually impaired?
Blindness is a spectrum not just a binary can see and can’t see.
There need to be tests to determine if somebody is fit to own a gun or operate a vehicle. Part of that test needs to be about visual and mental aquity. Your mind and sight needn’t be perfect, but at some point you are crossing too much into “you can’t be trusted with other peoples safety if you are allowed to operate this instrument of death” and that is where a line needs to be drawn.
There is nothing ableist about that, it’s a common sense safety measure for the people around you.
Well, you’re allowed to own a car even if you aren’t allowed to drive it. Maybe for guns there should also be separate rules for ownership and operation?
I mean, ideally, I’d be for no private ownership of firearms at all - that just makes for a safer society.
I mean yes… that’s what a collectors permit is… Viewed in that light…
But I agree, ideally, private gun ownership should be AT LEAST heavily regulated.
Woke 1 is dead, no I don’t want blind people to own guns, Jesus christ.
You should really educate yourself on what it means to be legally blind.
If a legally blind Person is not allowed to own a driver’s license why should they be able to own a gun?
Being allowed to own a thing is different from being allowed to use it in public. A blind person shouldn’t be allowed to drive or carry a gun, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they shouldn’t be allowed to display them in their home as art or something like that.
Arguing with Americans about guns is futile. It’s too ingrained in their culture, they grow up with it drilled into them.
Not drilled, shot
I’m well aware. I don’t want legally blind people to own guns, lol.
one sad thing is that, as american vehicles go, a 2013 Edge is not very offensive. sure, it’s not a Corolla, but it’s not a full size
it’s a CUV with inoffensive tech. not too big, not too heavy, not too blinding or distracting. not that that saved the victim…
Yeah, I was looking to see what type of street-legal APV allowed her to run over a full adult skater without noticing, but I guess this one was just decent suspension and zero awareness left in her bones.
My own grandfather is a danger on the road. He’s slowly losing his faculties, which is always tragic but doubly so because this was a deep intellectual. But trying to convince him that it’s really time to stop driving has been… a challenge, shall we say. There’s really only so much you can do in a legal sense.
Show him this article!
Maybe someone should ‘lose his keys’ for him 😘
Aye , you might be saving his life and the life of like 5 other people on the road 🤷🏿♂️
In America, you get at least on free kill with your vehicle. Age is rather irrelevant except she waited longer than others to claim her’s.
You’re supposed to be tested when you renew your license, but the renewal period is anywhere from four to twenty-five years, with some places even longer. If you are not renewing your license they neeed an incident to reevaluate your ability to drive.
On the one hand it’s good that they have less control over locing down the ability of people to move around, especially since we have almost no rail lines, horrible public transit, and roads that are dangerous to bike or walk on.
On the other… You have to hurt someone, or damage something, in order to be told “Okay, grandpa, time to hang up the keys.”
In my opinion I already know there’s gonnabe some landmark study or studies thst comes out that proves thst people at or around the ages of 70-75+ should not be driving at all since people of this age tend to lack coordination , reaction time, and awareness of many of the driving related events happening around them.
I wish I had compiled it but something Ive noticed is that in hit-and-run stories is thst you will find a disturbingly common trend of seeing that a very old senior ‘hit something or someone’ , ‘never noticed it was there before’, ‘and kept on going cause they thought it was nothing’ .
There comes an age when you just have to accept thst youre just too old to do some things. Not a single paid athlete in basketball anywhere in the world has been able to stay io that profession past the age of 50… there is a reason for this…
Never allow your ego to betray your understanding of humanity and your understanding of biology.
Since several years ago, Japan requires people of a certain age (75 IIRC) to take special classes to continue driving. I think there may be some other tests, but less sure on that. In the deep countryside, there isn’t always another option at any reasonable cost (especially to pensioners), which can create problems
We allow it for the very fact that without a vehicle an 80 year old person is essentially being given a death sentence in most cities in our country.
I am all for requirements of driver’s license test be met past a certain age. But, we need to acknowledge that it’s not just that. Seniors need alternative methods of transportation. They are driving because that’s all they can do.
Whether this is basic public transportation or major expansion of senior specific door to door transport systems. We can’t just “ban them”. Because then the problem will just be a bunch of seniors just driving without a license or dying alone in their home because they didn’t get their medication that day.
Even an 80 your old person who can’t have food and drugs delivered still does not need to drive a 4000lbs SUV. There are much safer alternatives. We can quite reasonably just “ban them” from driving unnecessarily dangerous vehicles.
If old people are going to be allowed to drive it should have to be smart cars or something, that way if they’re going to fuck around it will be them smeared 200m across the highway, not innocent victims
First, that SUV is 2 ton. That’s an easy search. You’re approaching semi-truck territory here.
Second, and I’m not siding with her as it could be false, what would you expect someone to do if they returned to a potential collision site and found nothing?
Semis, unloaded, are like five tons, minimum. I guess two tons is approaching, but then so is my sedan at like 3,400 pounds.
And as fully loaded tractor trailer is like 30 or 40 tons.
I believe cars are getting too big though.
That hypothetical would be much more convincing if it had anything to do with the actual facts of the real event that took place.
Yes, hindsight is 20/20. Unfortunately, I can’t see into the future and neither could she.
… The… Future…? What about the present? Like, seeing things on the road as you’re driving?
There’s no need to be sarcastic; I want you to be more persuasive because I completely agree with you that it is unreasonable to expect private citizens to be able to do things like: notice a full-grown man in rollerblades on the side of a highway, or notice you have collided with a rollerblader, or safely overtake a rollerblader, or notice that the rollerblader is no longer visible and is instead dying on the side of the road. People can’t do this if they are 32 or 82 – there is too much going on with their phones and their infotainment panels and the complex road conditions. You just gotta say it with your whole chest: no-one can reasonably be expected to safely operated a motor vehicle.
which is why FuckCars
If public transit were more common hit and runs like these would be far less common. Cause even if a 32 YO or oldrr person were operating such a vehicle public transport buses pick up on when youre moving too fast and they warn you, AND they probahly send a report bck to your boss, AND they have wider fields of vision cause of their bigger glass screeens so you can see more before you ever get to hit someone, AND because theyre bigger and girthier they tend to accelerate slower so pedestrians can see and interpret what dangerous moves these viehicles are about to make better.
Oh no… media addicted narcissist kills himself for upvotes by doing something dangerous and ill advised? What? Again? I’m shocked!
(HUGE condolences to his loved ones. Seriously — this is a tragedy. I don’t blame cars. I blame this system that rewards narcissism plus risk. No thanks. I’m out. Again — if you are a grieving family member seeing this, I am so sorry for your loss.)
What in the victim blaming bullshit are you on about?
The villains here, in order of culpability are:
The old lady who kept driving years or decades after she really should have turned in the keys
The political class that continues to enshrine motornormativity and treat all methods of transport other than ecocidal narcissism as less-than.
The culture of the US, created by carbrained assholes
Absolutely not in any way the person killed by the assholes listed above for trying to do something fun and interesting.
doing something dangerous and ill advised
using public roads in the US
“Media addicted narcissist” it’s just a guy who liked roller blading
Gets hit by a 80+ year old in an SUV, and you’re equating it to “kills himself” - what a braindead take.
He wasn’t shot, so that’s a nice change. /s
Oof, why did I laugh at this? 'Tis America, I guess?
Of course an suv. People and their big vehicles thinking they’re untouchable and in their private house with no one looking in.
Also, visibility is worse.
