Tuesday a person operating a truck collided with Marganne Allen biking down High Street southbound at the intersection with Leslie Street. Allen later died from injuries sustained in the crash. After a protracted investigation and something of a coverup, on September 6th, Marion County charged the driver with "criminally negligent homicide."
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| via Twitter |
From Salem PD yesterday:
At approximately 3:45 p.m. on Tuesday, March 28, Salem Police patrol officers responded to the scene of a traffic collision involving a bicyclist and the driver of a pick-up truck at the intersection of Leslie and High STS SE.
The preliminary investigation by the Salem Police Traffic Team revealed the bicyclist was riding southbound on High ST approaching Leslie ST when the driver of the truck traveling eastbound on Leslie ST entered the intersection and crossed the bicyclist’s path of travel, resulting in a collision.
The bicyclist, 53-year-old Marganne Allen, suffered critical injuries and was transported to Salem Health where she later died.
The driver of the pick-up truck, Samuel Landis, age 37, was not injured. He remained on the scene and is cooperating with the investigation.
The intersection remained closed for approximately four hours as the incident was investigated, and the scene cleared.
No citations have been issued or arrest made as the Traffic Team investigation into the collision continues. No further information is available for release.
High Street is not stopped at the intersection, but Leslie Street is stopped,
and on the surface it looks like Landis failed to yield and could also
have misjudged Allen's rate of speed on the downhill section. Allen may have been unable to stop in time for a truck operator improperly in the intersection and t-boned the truck.
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| Leslie Street eastbound at High Street |
The initial police tweet focused on Oak Street and a "pedestrian," neither of which turned out to be the most accurate descriptions.
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| via Twitter |
The subsequent police release corrected these. It also did not
mess around with saying whether Allen was wearing a helmet, and used active verbs and human subjects/agents in talking about "the driver of the truck traveling eastbound."
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| At Salem Reporter |
Even with a "crash not accident" bill at the Legislature, Salem Reporter used "accident."
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| Today's paper |
The paper mixed centering active verbs in the headline with passive voice in the lede.
Unfortunately, with a Police release that was decently written, as media revised it for publication they reintroduced problematic language.
Addendum, April 1st
Salem Police yesterday issued an update with a second release, and prospects for a thorough and impartial investigation seem to have dimmed.
The driver, Landis, is a special agent with the US Drug Enforcement Administration and was on duty at the time of the collision.
No Salem Police employees were present at the time of the crash; however, the two agencies have a long-established partnership through a task force. Due to those circumstances, the Salem Police Department has requested the Keizer Police Department lead the investigation.
As this case is ongoing, no other details are available for release at this time. Any further information will be issued by the Keizer Police Department.
The project for protected bike lanes, Salem Bike Vision, posted from an informal memorial site and vigil last night.
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| via Twitter |
Addendum, April 4th
The paper today gives the transfer of investigation front page coverage.
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| Front page, April 4th |
But the image, with Gaiety Hill in the background, is disconnected from anything we know now about directionalities in the crash. It may offer the best view of the memorial and be more picturesque, but does not illustrate much about the crash, the how of the story.
It might be premature to try to read the image very closely, but there is a gap between text and image. Allen was traveling southbound downhill; Landis was traveling eastbound. Photos at the crash site instead show northbound perspectives looking uphill. This choice also hides the stop signs on Leslie for Landis. These stop signs, implying right of way for Allen, should be more visible in coverage. More subtly, the uphill view may also direct attention to Allen's downhill trajectory as if braking was the primary matter and deflect focus away from Landis' decision to enter the intersection on a stop sign.
The paper's newish policy compounds the rhetoric of circumlocution in this and in previous stories.
Back in January of 2022 the paper announced:
It is the Statesman Journal's policy to withhold a suspect's name until they have been arraigned in court...We will continue to cover violent crimes and incidents that put the public at risk. But we will strive to add context to those — taking the time to tell the stories of the lives lost, analyze crime trends to provide an understanding of what is happening in our community, expose inequities in the system and hold law enforcement accountable for their words and actions.
Salem Reporter says Keizer PD won't announce anything until the investigation is completed.
Update, May 4th
This is effed up. It looks like something of a coverup. Salem Reporter has a new update in "Salem police gave evidence to DEA minutes after agent’s fatal collision with cyclist."
From the piece:
Records indicate that an undercover drug investigator arrived soon after [the crash]. The investigator was a Salem police officer assigned to the DEA’s Salem task force.
The undercover officer took 24 photos of the scene and texted them to his DEA supervisor. It couldn’t be established if he sent them before providing them to his own agency [ie, Salem PD and the traffic crash investigation]. The officer provided no explanation or commentary in the text transmission used to send the photos....
[Salem PD] said that the photos captured by the undercover Salem officer “were entered into evidence and made available to the investigating agency, the Keizer Police Department. Because the incident remains an active investigation, we cannot comment further.”
But the Keizer police were unaware that a Salem officer had sent crash scene photos to the DEA, according to Lt. Chris Nelson.
“You bringing that to our attention is the first time we’ve heard that,” he told Salem Reporter on Wednesday, May 3....
Court records as of Wednesday, May 3, show no record that [Landis] has been cited or charged in connection with Allen’s death.
Update, May 15th
Salem Reporter says Landis was speeding, likely going about 37 mph on a neighborhood street, and blew the stop sign. People are also refusing to speak on the record and fear Police retaliation. There is increasing evidence for an attempt at a coverup and a "blue wall of silence."
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| via Twitter |
Minor update, June 5th: Salem Reporter has more detail on the City's secrecy and ever increasing evidence for a coverup. "City kept in close touch with DEA following fatal cyclist collision, records show."
More, July 10th: From Salem Reporter, "Salem police gave video evidence to investigators three months after cyclist’s death." It looks like a more accurate verb would be "withheld for three months." They write "Salem police for nearly three months held on to video evidence related to a March fatal bike crash before turning it over to outside investigators, a delay authorities won’t explain." Both Chief Womack and City Manager Stahley seem inclined to stonewall. Stahley said to Salem Reporter:
“You are quick to jump to conclusions based on incomplete information. It is very difficult to be transparent during an ongoing investigation. We cannot release information that would jeopardize the investigation,” he said. “Our intention is to always serve justice and in this case, we have done so by providing all information necessary for the DA and Keizer to conduct their investigation.”
This stinks so much.
August 28th: Salem Reporter has a new update on the coverup and the way the Police saw a PR problem primarily, more than a traffic or criminal investigation, "New details emerge on how Salem police managed DEA crash information":
Salem police had more frequent contact than previously known with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration while investigating one of its agents for involvement in a fatal bicycle collision, according to recently released records.
The contacts suggest the two agencies worked to manage what information was shared with the public beginning within hours of the crash.
That apparent coordination conflicts with the Salem Police Department’s repeated assertions since the March collision that it couldn’t disclose to outsiders information about the investigation.
And the records show that Salem’s police chief soon after the fatal crash was discounting that anyone would be charged in the March 28 death of cyclist Marganne Allen. That was before he decided to turn over the case to another agency because of the close professional linkages between his department and the DEA.
Marion County prosecutors said last week that they still haven’t decided whether to charge the DEA agent in the cyclist’s death.
Major Update, September 6th
Salem Reporter with the scoop:
An agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has been charged with criminally negligent homicide for his role in a collision in March that killed a Salem cyclist, according to court documents.
A Marion County grand jury on Wednesday indicted Samuel T. Landis, 38, a special agent of the DEA, on a single count. The charge comes over five months after the collision that killed Marganne Allen, a cyclist and state official.
The charge alleges that the DEA agent killed Allen with “criminal negligence,” according to the indictment. Criminally negligent homicide is a class B felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Final Update for this Post, September 7th
Here's the front page start of the story in the paper.
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| Front page today |
The piece summarizes the "months of silence," and very briefly alludes to Salem Reporter:
Neighborhood cameras captured the driver of the truck speeding through the neighborhood and running the stop sign, according to reporting from the Salem Reporter and confirmed by neighbors.But of course Salem Reporter did much, much more: Advancing the story in multiple reports, making public information requests, analyzing timelines, and uncovering a disturbing pattern of evasion and PR management in an incipient coverup effort. Without the reporting it is difficult to see this outcome with charges and a warrant.
The paper is not very generous with credit.
Additional developments will be now in new posts, and updating this post is closed.
Killed in 2022
- George Heitz and Moira Hughes (inside their own home)
- Jowand Beck, Luke Kagey, Joe Posada III, and Rochelle Zamacona (camping on Front between Union and Division)
- Unknown person (on Cordon Road)
- Unknown person (on Lancaster Drive)
- Unknown person (on Lancaster Drive)
- Charles Dwayne Hatfield (I-5 in Linn County)
- Wesley James Crossman (RR)
- Vince Edward Fouts (Woodmansee Park lot)
- Cassandra Sullivan (I-5)
- Cynthia Lynn Perry Rizzo (Sunnyview Road)
- Kelly Joseph Fields (Cordon Road)
- Michael Ernest Summers (I-5)
- Denise Marie Vandyke (State and High)
- Linda Louise Wisher (Madrona Ave)
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)
- Marlene Moreno (downtown crosswalk)
- Becky Dietzel (on North River Road)
- Unknown person (on Church St downtown)
- Aleta Pierre-Kelly (Mission Street)
- Eileen Johnson (on bike)
- Unknown person (on bike crossing Salem Parkway)
- Anthony Garza (on bike, crossing I-5)
- Christine Klug (on I-5)
- Samuel Lannigan (Lancaster Drive)
- 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 (biking on Lakeside Drive)
- Joseph Rodriguez (Lakeside Drive)
- 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)
12 comments:
Have you ever reached out to Whitney re: the best practices in reporting traffic crashes, citing the AP guidance on crash vs. accident and the other reasoning from Goddard, etc.?
It's going to be a sustained, team effort to get the SJ turned around on rhetoric. Yesterday the Ex. Editor wrote a story about a death in Woodburn. The headline, "67-year-old woman dies after being struck while crossing Hwy 99E in Woodburn," and lede, "A 67-year-old woman crossing the southbound lanes of Highway 99E in Woodburn was struck by a vehicle Thursday night and died, according to Woodburn Police," both employ passive voice and erase the driver.
See notes tagged "erasing the driver," with emphasis on the Columbia Journalism Review article of 2018 and the first Goddard paper of 2019.
Additionally, this note has been updated with a second statement from Salem PD.
(Updated with additional note on media coverage)
(Updated with note on new piece at Salem Reporter)
(Updated with more from Salem Reporter, including evidence Landis was speeding and ran the stop sign.)
(Added link to a new Salem Reporter story that advances details on the City's secrecy and coverup.)
(New update from Salem Reporter with more on secrecy and coverup)
(New update from Salem Reporter on the way the Police managed a PR crisis rather than an investigation.)
(New update from Salem Reporter that the driver has been charged.)
(Added final update from paper. New information will be in new posts.)
A KPTV story that Bike Portland links to today says Salem PD knew Landis ran the stop sign very early. They also don't credit Salem Reporter:
Michael Baird, a retired Oregon state trooper who specialized in accident reconstruction, says he is puzzled why the investigation took so long.
“Marganne’s husband told me the night that Salem police came out and notified him that Marganne had been hit by a car, or ran into a car, and died subsequently at Salem hospital, they told him that they had clear evidence that the driver of the vehicle had run a stop sign,” Baird said. “They told him that right from the get-go, and I thought to myself, ‘Why wasn’t he cited if they had evidence of that?’”
https://www.kptv.com/2023/09/07/dea-agent-charged-death-salem-cyclist-videos-reveal-new-details-crash/
An update on the blue wall of silence:
https://www.salemreporter.com/2023/11/27/secrecy-surrounds-case-of-dea-agent-charged-for-salem-cyclists-death/
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