He was evidently badly injured.
"Merciful heaven!" wailed the coachman, "what more could I do?
If I'd been driving fast or had not shouted to him, but I was going quietly, not in a hurry.

Everyone could see I was going along just like everybody else.

A drunken man can't walk straight, we all know....

I saw him crossing the street, staggering and almost falling.

I shouted again and a second and a third time, then I held the horses in, but he fell straight under their feet! Either he did it on purpose or he was very tipsy....