Posted on 05/15/2013 7:28:17 AM PDT by dennisw
Richard Swanson, 42, planned to walk from Seattle to Sao Paulo, Brazil, for next year’s tournament.
His dreams of dribbling to the World Cup were cut short.
Richard Swanson, 42, planned to walk, soccer ball at his feet, from Seattle to Sao Paulo, Brazil, to make it in time for next year’s international soccer tournament. But Swanson was mowed down by a pickup truck Tuesday morning south of Lincoln City, Ore., only two weeks and a few hundred miles into his journey.
This map from the “Breakaway Brazil” Facebook page shows the journey Swanson attempted. Upon his death, he was only two weeks and a few hundred miles in.
“It is with a heavy heart to notify you that Richard Swanson passed on this morning,” someone posted on his “Breakaway Brazil” Facebook page used to document the trek. “His team, family, friends, and loved ones will miss him and love him dearly. You made it to Brazil in our hearts, Richard. Team Richard.”
Described as an “avid runner, soccer player, and all-around lover of the Pacific Northwest,” Swanson planned to visit 11 countries during his one-year-plus trip south. Along the way, Swanson planned to dribble an “indestructible” soccer ball to promote the One World Futbol Project, a charity that donates such durable balls to people in disadvantaged communities.
The ball was found among his belongings in the crash wreckage on U.S. Highway 101.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
Also be careful all you bicycle riders. There are much more idiots driving these days than a few decades ago. A friend of mine got hit on his bicycle by a young uninsured driver who has so little to his name no lawyer will sue him. My friend got his shoulder messed up and is getting better....slowly
Tragic, sad, stupid and pointless all at the same time.
That’s why your mama always said, “Don’t play with your ball near traffic...”
Dumbass didn’t make it very far did he?
I figured he would have been most in peril when he got to Mexico and El Salvador.....and not from trucks.
He was going to walk 6000 miles in flip flops?
Darwinism at its finest . . .
what an idiot, to dribble a soccer ball that far in only a year? He certainly had issues with math didn’t he?
I have walked along the highway where he was hit. Pedestrians have to be very careful as traffic is fast and few walk there. All along the coastal highways in the Northwest it is not safe.
Ahh, ok. That's important.
Everywhere I have lived, walking on any freeway/highway is illegal because of the danger you described.
This man was incredibly stupid, and paid for his stupidity with his life.
Walking, riding a bike, or even a motorcycle, along the twisty coastal highways in Oregon is never a good a idea.
Real-time GPS tracker of soccer player Richard Swanson, who was trying to dribble a One World Futbol from Seattle to Sao Paulo, Brazil for the 2014 World Cup. He was hit by a car and killed in Lincoln City, Ore.
We need sensitivity training to overcome increasingly vicious anti-soccer attitudes in this country ....
Whoops.
Is this guy a candidate for a Darwin Award?
The driver may have been trying to avoid an elk or deer.
Is it possible the ball got away from him and he stepped into traffic trying to retrieve it when he was hit? Focusing on the ball instead of situation awareness.
The wording is “plowed into him.” Notice little info in the story, lots of non important things.
Not only that, but if he loses the ball in traffic and causes an accident...
Can't tell if this was meant seriously, or as a joke.
Taken as a joke, it is pretty funny.
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