This is a request to skateboarders and electric scooter riders:

Please slow down, watch out for pedestrians and give plenty of alert to people you are passing.

On Sept. 17, my brother was walking across the T. Tyler Potterfield Memorial Bridge in Downtown. He was enjoy- ing some of the historical signs that were embedded in the bridge. Suddenly he heard, “On your right,” and less than a second later, he was run over by a passing skateboarder, a man in his late 20s. My brother was knocked to the ground.

After making sure my brother was “all right,” the skate- boarder went on his way with a, “Sorry dude.”

It is assumed because he has no memory of the event, my brother must have hit his head on the railing of the bridge. He was so dazed. He was not aware of how badly he was injured. He ended up in a local emergency room that day, with a severe concussion.

Unfortunately, the CAT scan they took did not show a slow brain bleed. Five weeks later, my brother started to show stroke-like symptoms. The bleed was very large by then. He just got home from two hospital stays in intensive care and finally had brain surgery to drain and clean out the bleed. As he recovers, he is now having seizures and will need to be on anti-seizure medication for an undetermined amount of time. He can no longer drive and will need to take a possible early retirement. All this because of one person’s carelessness to slow down and give a timely, audible alert, when approaching an unaware pedestrian.

With electric scooters, skateboards, hover-boards, bikes and other fast-moving transportation, please remember it is your responsibility to watch for people on foot. This has been a devastating accident for our family to go through. The neurosurgeon said my brother was lucky to still be walking the planet.

We hope this letter will be a reminder for safety, operator responsibility and following the posted laws.

SHAWNA GOTTFREDSON

Twin Falls, Idaho