A few days ago in Keizer a jaydriver crashed into a house and killed two persons. The reporting on the story in the paper reflects a change in policy that may need adjustment.
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| Lockhaven with a big, sweeping curve at Trail Ave. It has a posted speed limit of 35mph, but the road invites faster speed |
From Keizer Police:
On January 22, 2022 at approximately 7:40 a.m., the Keizer Police Department responded to a vehicle crash in the 5600 block of Trail Ave NE. Officers arrived and conducted an investigation which led to the arrest of 41 year-old, Andrew Modine of Keizer.
It was determined that Mr. Modine was traveling east on Lockhaven Dr NE before his vehicle left the roadway and drove up onto a landscaped area in the 700 block. The vehicle re-entered Lockhaven and veered onto Trail Ave NE where it once again left the roadway and struck a power pole before careening into the home located at 5695 Trail Ave NE. Two individuals were located in the home; 63 year-old George Heitz and 67 year-old Moira Hughes. Mr. Heitz was transported to the Salem Hospital Emergency Department with serious injuries but is in stable condition. Ms. Hughes was pronounced deceased on scene. [Heitz died a few days later.]
Mr. Modine is currently lodged at the Marion County Correctional Facility on the following charges:
• Manslaughter I
• Assault II
• Reckless Endangering
• Reckless Driving
• Driving Under the Influence of Intoxicants
• Driving While Criminally Suspended
• Criminal Mischief II
• Probation Violation
This case has been sent to the Marion County District Attorney’s Office. Future inquiries should be directed to their office.
Left unexamined is how Lockhaven might be designed in ways that permit very high speed. How did the driver get up to speed before he off-roaded and slammed into the house? The house on Trail Avenue is a few lots north of Lockhaven, and to cover that distance means speed. With broad, sweeping curves engineered to forgive minor errors by drivers, the design leads to catastrophe with major error like high speed or impairment.
The New Mugshot Policy
The reporting on the crash likely needs adjustment.
As part of the paper's new mugshot and crime policy, in the initial story they wrote, "A woman was killed in her Keizer home Saturday morning after a driver struck a power pole and rammed into her residence....It is the Statesman Journal's policy to withhold a suspect's name until they have been arraigned in court.."
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| In print on Monday |
For lesser offenses, small crimes, lesser than killing a person, withholding names and not publishing mugshots is reasonable. We do not want to print every speeding ticket like they did a century ago.
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| Front page 100 years ago January 11th, 1922 |
But I do not think the paper has the right balance here. In the past year alone several drivers have killed people, and the dead have remained unnamed, perhaps still unidentified, but perhaps also not regarded highly enough to name and give dignity in death, and there has not always been follow-up on the drivers either, whether charged and a "suspect" or not.
Unknown people killed in 2021
- Unknown person (I-5 and Market Street interchange)
- Unknown person (on Church St downtown)
- Unknown person (on bike crossing Salem Parkway)
- Unknown person (Lancaster Drive)
Applying the mugshot policy to traffic deaths from car violence may be part of our general autoism of erasing the driver and of carelessly treating the deaths as acceptable levels of collateral and "accidental" damage for using the roads. On this view killing someone in a crash could be just an "innocent" mistake.
But if only ordinary traffic citations, or none at all, are issued, we might never learn the name of the person driving under this policy. It sweeps that under the rug.
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| They knew better in 1937 |
Even when there is no provable level of carelessness or negligence, we should not want to minimize the dangers of driving, treating crashes as accidents and as no big deal, but instead should want to highlight them and remind people that every time they get behind the wheel, they could kill someone.
We need a stronger culture of care in our culture of cars and driving. Talking more frankly about car violence should be part of this. Identifying drivers in this context is not any attempt at shaming, but is a reminder that there is always a person in charge of the safe operation of a motor vehicle, and that our car use exacts a terrible toll.
If the paper were committed to follow-up and looking at the systemic problems with road design, engineering, speed, and safety, then the policy of withholding names could be more reasonable. But in the current context and paradigm of autoism and "accidents," the policy just contributes to mystifying traffic deaths as the result of personal fault and bad actors, not as part of any systemic problem.
Perhaps they will look more closely at systems. In an editorial announcing the change, they said
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.
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| In yesterday's paper |
The story on arraignment in yesterday's paper, which finally names the driver, focuses on him as a bad actor with a history of bad actions, however. The story
resolves the problem to a 0.24 blood alcohol reading, three times our
legal limit of 0.08, but does not look at a road design that allows a
person to get up to speed in the first place, or any other factors in our autoism. It's all about the bad decisions of one individual.
As it happens, the paper also has front row seats to a oversized street and problematic intersection, and they have not yet seen it as a fit subject for a close analysis.
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| Crash into the Roth's parking lot, at SJ HQ |
In no small part because of automotive advertising's size in revenue streams, asking for a closer reading of our autoism is likely just to be quixotic. But the subject is there if the paper wanted.
3 comments:
Heitz has also died, and Modine charged with an additional count of manslaughter.
(Also updated the post for two deaths.)
Lockhaven is too wide and fast, especially from Trail to River Road (Which is also too fast and wide. And don't get me started about the stretch from McLoed to I-5.). Only last fall, a student was struck crossing an intersection at a side street near McLoed by a car turning south from Lockhaven at dusk because of the driver's understanding that cars have preference on that road. Or at least that's how it's been designed.
Lockhaven was once supposed to be the connector from I-5 to a third bridge. It went from a gravel road surrounded by farmland in the mid-60's to a higher speed arterial that's was upsized for a highway connector. Despite that bridge not being built, it still acts like a high speed connector even though it goes past residential and commercial development and 3 schools.
Reprinting a piece from the Keizer Times, at Salem Reporter they discuss the troubled history of a jaydriver and a justice system that was likely too soft, but nothing about speed or road design that allowed speed:
"Modine was allegedly driving eastbound in Keizer early on the morning of Jan. 22, when he swerved into a power pole and then drove through the side of a house, pinning the couple in their bed."
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