Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Driver Strikes Person on Foot, who Later Dies, and Flees from Scene

On a stretch of South Commercial where people are especially likely to want to cross the street, very near Trader Joes and Winco, on Friday a driver apparently struck a person on foot crossing the street. The driver did not stop and render aid, the person stuck later died, and Police are seeking the driver.

There's no crosswalk at the bus stop
Commercial here is signed for 40mph

There are signalized crosswalks north at Hilfiker and south at Keglers, and a new enhanced crosswalk a little further south at Royvonne, near where a driver killed Shatamera Pruden in 2017, but at the bus stop on the north-bound side of Commercial there is no crosswalk and this is an instance where the big driveway corners look like they might create an unsigned crosswalk. The road/driveway design here is particularly ambiguous. The posted speed is also 40mph, too fast for this urban context with bus stops, and with people on foot and on bike.

From Salem PD:

On Friday, April 16, 2021, at approximately 8:30 p.m. Salem Fire and Police personnel were dispatched to a call of an injured pedestrian in the 4500 block of Commercial ST SE near the WinCo store.

When responders arrived, they located Galina Dvorskaya, age 61 of Salem, in the middle of the street with life-threatening injuries apparently from being struck by a vehicle. The involved driver of vehicle or vehicles were not at the scene of the collision.

Dvorskaya was transported to Salem Health where a few days later she eventually died from her injuries. An autopsy confirmed the injuries where consistent with being struck by a vehicle.

The Salem Police Traffic Team is conducting the follow-up investigation and asks for the public’s help in identifying the involved driver and vehicle. If you have any information regarding this incident, please call the Traffic Team at 503-588-6293.

This post will be updated.

Back in 2015 we said "troubling"
but really, how troubled are we?

Killed in 2021

Killed in 2020
Killed in 2019
Killed in 2018
Killed in 2017
Killed in 2016:
Killed in 2015:
On erasing the driver - Columbia Journalism Review

For more discussion of language see these recent examples:

For more on the cultural and legal context of our autoism in which we minimize the responsibility of drivers and shift blame to people on foot, see:

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