HAMPTON, Va. (WAVY) — “I just said Lord watch over him. Take care of him and let it be your will.”
That was the prayer Gloria Oxley made when she came across a deadly accident by her home Saturday evening.
Police are investigating after a Chevrolet Malibu struck a riding lawnmower. The driver of the lawnmower was pronounced dead at the scene, while another man who was also on the lawnmower was transported to a hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening.
Dispatchers in Hampton say the crash was reported just after 11 p.m. Saturday.
“It was approximately I’d say about 11 o’clock. I was in the living room; I was watching TV and I heard a hit, but it wasn’t like a car hit, it was a hit. And then I heard like something dragging, and I thought it was a motorcycle,” Oxley said.
She called 911. “The response of the police department was almost immediately,” she said.
“When I walked up to there, it was the man, and he was pinned in between the car and the lawnmower,” Oxley said.
The man who died was identified as 62-year-old Floyd Howard Jr.
“I just got on my knees cause I just felt like he is not going to make it, and I just knelt down and I prayed, and I think that is when he passed,” said Oxley.
Oxley said it’s not uncommon to hear motorcycles or cars speeding down the road, but she hopes more people can be aware of their surroundings.
“I just kept looking out the window and thinking about the family and the people that they left behind because he is dead, he’s gone, his soul is gone. It’s us, you know. And I tell my sister, ‘You can’t be afraid to make a difference.’ Go out there, you know, cause a lot of people stayed inside. I’m just not like that,” she said.
The initial investigation revealed the lawnmower and the sedan were traveling in the same direction when the sedan struck the lawnmower from behind.
It was not immediately known whether the driver is facing charges.