Lenny B. Robinson, Route 29 Batman, Killed On Maryland Highway

Lenny B. Robinson was known as the “Route 29 Batman.” A man who made the internet world laugh after dashcam footage from a police car in Montgomery County, Md., made him famous as he was pulled over in a film-quality Batman costume. This was in 2012, and Robinson is not only known as a YouTube curiosity, but a selfless individual who went out of his way to entertain children in hospitals suffering from serious conditions.

Reports surfaced that on Sunday Robinson was killed along the side of the highway in Hagerstown, Md. Robinson’s black Lamborghini that served as his Batmobile broke down, and he was forced to pull over to the side of the road. His car was stopped partially in the fast lane, according to law enforcement, when it was side-swiped by a Toyota Camry. Robinson was standing on the passenger side of the car and was pronounced dead at the scene. He had just left a gas station where he had handed out merchandise to kids before the accident.

The driver of the Toyota Camry was uninjured, and no charges have been filed although the investigation is still underway.

Robinson was a real hero who had a successful cleaning business. He eventually raised enough money to buy his Batmobile, suit and merchandise so he could make children with cancer and other illnesses around his home state of Maryland smile.

“I’m just doing it for the kids,” Robinson said while visiting the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington D.C., and upon reflecting on his own kids added, “We’re lucky.”

Hope For Henry is an organization started by Laurie Strongin and Henry Goldberg after their son Henry died, and Robinson was a major part of their effort to help children suffering from serious and sometimes terminal disease. Batman was always a big hit at the superhero parties they hosted for kids, and was said to have never turned down a request. “Eventually, it sinks in and you become him,” Robinson told The Washington Post in 2012. “It feels like I have a responsibility that’s beyond a normal person. And that responsibility is to be there for the kids, to be strong for them, and to make them smile as much as I can.”

Hope For Henry had recently finished making a video in which Robinson pulls up next to a boy dressed as Batman. Then the real Batman gets out of his car and hugs the boy.

Both adults and children will remember Robinson fondly. Montgomery County Police said in a statement that, “When we replay the traffic-stop video, we smile and laugh, fondly remembering the day that MCP met a real superhero.”