Struck D.C. Pedestrian Has Critical Injuries, $5 Ticket

Charles Atherton, former secretary of the U.S. Fine Arts Commission. (Michael Williamson - The Washington Post)

D.C. police issued a $5 jaywalking ticket to a renowned urban designer after a car sent him hurtling through the air as he crossed a busy Washington street.

Charles Atherton, 73, the former longtime secretary of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts who oversaw the design of major monuments and federal buildings, was in critical condition yesterday after he was hit Thursday night while crossing rain-slicked Connecticut Avenue NW.

The collision's force, witnesses said, caused Atherton to fly out of his shoes and left him crumpled on the road, bleeding from his head and nose after his head smashed into the windshield.

Before paramedics rushed him to the hospital, police issued Atherton the ticket, which his family found among his belongings when they visited him at George Washington University Hospital.

"He was issued a ticket because he was at fault. That's all I can tell you," said Lt. John Kutniewski of the police department's major crash investigation unit.

Police said that Atherton caused the accident by crossing the street mid-block, just south of the Uptown movie theater in Cleveland Park.

Kutniewski, who was not at the scene immediately after the 7:30 p.m. accident, said that officers later told him that Atherton was conscious when he received the summons.

"If he's outside the crosswalk, he would be at fault," he said.

Michael Baker, a communications consultant who was a few yards away when the accident occurred, was among the first to reach Atherton. "At one point, we were trying to get him to respond, and it was unclear if he was trying to respond or maybe drowning in blood," he said. "I think he was having a difficult time breathing. He never said anything. He couldn't speak, and he wouldn't respond when we pinched his hand."

Baker said he overheard a police officer "reassuring" the driver involved in the accident that she was not at fault. She had been headed south on Connecticut.

On the face of it, Baker said, it may seem "offensive" that Atherton was ticketed, but he believed that the officers were seeking to establish liability. "It seemed primarily to assuage her," he said of the driver. "She was just distraught. She was wailing for 45 minutes."

For 40 years until his 2004 retirement, Atherton was secretary at the commission, a panel appointed by the president that reviews and advises the federal government on issues related to architecture and design in the nation's capital.