MACON, Ga. —
After a Macon man died after being struck by a car on December 18, his family says more could've been done to save his life, and more should be done to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Family members say Emanuel Jones was just 8 minutes from work, 2 minutes from his home, and 9 minutes from the nearest hospital when he was hit by a car on Pio Nono Avenue.
Jones's older brother Henry Davis says it was common to see him out walking.
"It would not be abnormal to find him walking anywhere from Atlanta to Savannah, and you would think that he was hitchhiking, but he was not hitchhiking," his oldest brother said.
So when the family received a call that he was hit, his daughter Ebony Stuckey says that was only the beginning of their questions.
"They really didn't tell me much; they didn't tell me what had happened to him. They just told me he was in the hospital, and I couldn't physically talk to him then,” she said.
She says a nurse -- not the authorities -- told her he was hit by a car.
An incident report shows Jones was struck just feet from a sidewalk on Pio Nono Avenue, in the far-right travel lane. Another driver stopped and called 911.
"That's very disheartening that someone would just leave him there knowing that he could've gotten help, maybe, those moments that were spent with him just lying there being out in the cold,” the man’s daughter explained.
The family is upset with the initial lack of information from authorities and with the driver.
"An accident is when you hit somebody, you get them assistance, and you get them to the hospital. Killing somebody is when you hit somebody and leave them on the side of the road, so he was killed," Richard Edwards Sr. said.
Another concern-- Macon's history of pedestrian accidents, including the 12 this year.
"I absolutely think that whatever is going on in that area with the traffic or whether it be the road system, something's up," Stuckey said.
Affectionately called "Uncle Piddling," his family wants people to know he wasn't homeless, but a veteran who cared and helped all.
"He loved people and he helped people, and if he had found you on the road, he would've got you some help," Joyce Davis said.
Bibb County has reported 13 pedestrian fatalities this year, according to coroner Leon Jones.
The man’s family says Bibb County still have no leads and no arrests.