A Norwegian man rollerblading across the US was killed in Kansas after an 82-year-old woman allegedly hit him with her SUV and drove off.
Joachim Lanham, 24, was on day 22 of his cross-country journey from New York to Los Angeles when an off-duty first responder found him critically injured in a roadside ditch in Salina — about 175 miles outside Kansas City — on Sept. 5, the Wichita Eagle reported on Monday.
Lanham was rushed to Salina Regional Health Center, then transferred to the intensive care unit at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita.
He spent six days in a medically induced coma before he died from his injuries on Sept. 11.
Lanham’s family wrote on his Instagram that before he died, “his brother Michael was with him holding his hand throughout the week and at the very end.”
The Saline County Sheriff’s Office said that while officers were investigating at the scene, the driver came forward.
“An 82-year-old female said she had been driving a 2013 Ford Edge SUV going west on Country Club Road,” cops told KSAL.
“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.”
Lt. Scott Trembley, of the Saline County Sheriff’s Office, said once the woman returned home, she noticed damage to her car and called a friend, who returned to the scene with her.
“She knew she struck something. She just wasn’t sure what,” Trembley told the Wichita Eagle.
The case has been handed over to the Saline County Attorney’s Office, as they determine whether the 82-year-old driver will face any charges, the sheriff’s office said.
Just 40 minutes before the crash, Lanham was on the phone with his parents, telling them how much long-distance rollerblading meant to him, his family said.
On the day of the accident, Lanham shared a video where he was rollerblading on the empty roads of Kansas.
“I’m in Kansas baby, the heatwave has been kicking my ass, I thought I knew what hot, but nothing like this,” he captioned the post.
“My weather forecast app keeps telling me to check up on my loved ones and to seek refuge, but I’m on a mission. Mother nature will definitely slow me down but I will succeed.”
Earlier this year, Lanham had skated more than 3,665 miles across Australia.
“We as his family are so thankful for all the support you have given him on his wild adventures,” his family wrote in the post directed to his followers.
“They meant the world to him.”
His family also shared the last video Lanham recorded before the crash — a butterfly flapping its wings on his foot.
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