Driving a van late Friday afternoon, Paul Brogden III struck and killed Marlene Moreno as she attempted to cross Center Street in a crosswalk at the intersection with High Street downtown.
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| Southbound on High, turning left onto Center Note person on foot entering crosswalk northbound |
From Salem Police:
Just before 5 p.m. on July 2, 2021, a parking enforcement officer reported a crash involving a vehicle and a pedestrian at the intersection of High and Center STS NE.
The pedestrian was identified as Marlene Moreno, age 73 of Salem, was in the marked crosswalk traversing northbound across Center ST when she was struck by a van. Moreno sustained critical injuries and was transported to Salem Health where she later died.
The driver of the van, Paul Brogden III, age 44 of California, was making an eastbound turn from High ST onto Center ST. Brogden remained on the scene and cooperated with officers conducting the initial investigation.
The Salem Police Traffic Team is completing the crash investigation. Anyone who may have witnessed the incident can contact the team at 503-588-6293.
The paper's first story online reproduces the passive voice and erasure of the driver in the press release: "A woman was crossing on Center Street at High Street at about 5 p.m., according to Salem Police, when she was struck by a van."
A different story shows it doesn't have to be that way.
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| Saturday's paper on a different situation |
It was interesting to note in Saturday's paper a story about a different case that they avoided the euphemism of "officer involved shooting," but still erased the driver: Subject and active verb in "Salem police shot," but driver erased in "the vehicle fled."
The police press release, in fact, was titled "Officer Involved Shooting in Polk County."
So we know that journalists at the paper are exercising judgement and not always just churning press releases from police with little revision.
Still too often they take the traffic crash incident language too closely, do not revise it, and reproduce ways we erase the drivers and insulate them from criticism, fault, and the fact that even lawful driving employs potentially lethal speed and power.
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| On erasing the driver - Columbia Journalism Review |
For more discussion of language see these recent examples:
- "Headline Omits Verb, Erases the Driver; New TRB Paper Addresses Problem" (2019). This also has links to a follow-up study on framing and reader interpretation.
- See the way the story develops with different publications in "Driver Strikes and Kills Marshall Leslie on Foot near Downtown Safeway." (2019)
- "Why so much Acceptance for Traffic Cone Theory of Walking?" with discussion of a Salem Police PSA (2015)
- Notes on a City of Salem PSA this month, "City PSA on Time Change and Safety Needs Paradigm Change Itself." It has many links to the history of jaywalking also. (2019)
- On "distracted walking," "Death on Foot: Too Much on Distracted Walking Canard." (2018)
- "Why Pedestrian Rights themselves may not be Sufficient." (2015)
- Two discussions of a law review article about our system of subsidy for autoism, "The Laws for Compulsory Autoism at The Atlantic," and "Police Publish Video on How to Speed Without a Ticket." (both 2019)
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| Just a couple weeks ago |
Killed in 2021
- Unknown person (I-5 and Market Street interchange)
- Rachel Bunting (while operating a bus for Cherriots)
- Blake Saville (on bike)
- Christian Kennedy (on Silverton Road)
- Galina Dvorskaya (south Commercial)
- Jaime Le Ann Hall (on skateboard)
- Sharon Pritchard
- Mario Lopez-Lopez (walking a bike)
- Unknown person via SJ (on I-5 near Market St)
- Andrew Otho Polston (biking on Windsor Island Road)
- Jolene Braasch Berry (on bike)
- Richardo Morales Avila (in McMinnville)
- Octavious Calloway (on I-5 near Market St)
- Selma Pierce
- Hermilo Mata Jr.
- Unknown person (on mobility scooter)
- Marshall Leslie
- Linda Adamson (south Salem) and Stephanie Ashford (just outside Salem)
- Jason Libel (on bike)
- Josephine Watkins
- Rodric Kenyon Drolshagen
Killed in 2017
Killed in 2016:
- Olivia Stroup
- Jaren Nash
- Alex Armes
- Anthony Earnest
- Baxter Harrell
- Unknown (just outside Salem)
- Bradley Goad (in Silverton)
This post may be updated.
2 comments:
I find it surprising that there is no Walk/Don't Walk signal at the crosswalk. I also wonder whether a "no left turn on red" freestanding sign coupled with a small sign attached to the traffic signal is in order. Even though that movement is legal I assume that in certain situations it can be curtailed. This might be one of those situations and the recent incident will surely bring the intersection to the attention of Public Works.
As to identifying the driver, I am not sure that the potential benefits of creating the fear that a driver would be identified in a case like this would make anyone safer. If the driver acted negligently, as seems likely, then he should be held accountable. Most likely he feels horrible about the loss of life and that will be a punishment that never goes away.
Another pedestrian accident that I am familiar with lacked public identification of the driver (as far as I could tell) but the more disturbing aspect in that case was the lack of reporting on the way it happened and how road design may have played a part.
Anon, the police report disclosed the name of the driver. That is customary. "Erasing the driver" is about the grammatical function of ascribing agency to the car, whose driver is later named as if they were only peripherally involved. It is a way to make driving more innocent so we do not blame drivers when there is no extraordinary negligence - the rhetoric of "accident" - even when they are the ones employing lethal speed and force, and are responsible for the safe operation of a motor vehicle.
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