Leonard B Robinson, known from a 2012 Washington Post article as the man who dressed up as Batman and visited sick children in hospitals in his batmobile, died Sunday, Aug 16 at about 10:30 PM in a car accident on Interstate-70, near the unincorporated community of Big Pool, Md. The Owings Mills resident was 51.
Authorities say his car, a red-and-black replica of the batmobile used in the 1960s TV series, had engine trouble and he had stopped on the median to look into the trouble. He had to leave part of the passenger side of the vehicle in the fast lane on I-70, and a Toyota Camry, whose driver was neither injured nor charged, sideswiped the batmobile and injured Mr Robinson.
Mr Robinson was returning from a weekend festival known as Summerfest in South Charleston, W.Va., a small part of his stated mission to “entertain ill and terminally ill children by appearing to them as Batman and teaching them that just as Batman fights battles, no matter how hard or long their health battles may be, with strength of will and determination, there is always hope.”
The Washington Post reported in 2012 that Mr Robinson spent $25,000 of his own money on Batman-related items for kids every year.
Lenny is survived by his wife and their three children.
