Driver Strikes and Kills Person Walking near Lancaster and Ibex

A person driving has struck and killed someone crossing the street near Chemeketa Community College Sunday night.

From the Sheriff:

On Jun 26 , 2022 at approximately 10:05 PM deputies and emergency personnel responded to a single vehicle crash involving a pedestrian at the 4000 block of Lancaster and Ibex. Arriving responders located the pedestrian who was pronounced deceased at the scene.

This area of Lancaster was closed for approximately 4 hours while members of the Marion County Sherriff's Office CRASH team conducted an investigation.

The identity of the male pedestrian is not being released at this time pending notification of next of kin.

The 19 year old male driver remained on scene; no citations or arrests have been made at this time. [map link added]

The description of the crash is a little ambiguous, but for the moment I take it that the person driving was on Lancaster. That's where they are more likely have enough speed to kill someone immediately.

Designed for auto speed (2019)

Lancaster here at Ibex has no marked crosswalks, distances between signalized intersections, and appears to have lighting on only one side of the street. There are marked crosswalks at Ward and Satter Drives, but those require a good bit of out of direction travel. Lancaster is very wide and straight, with four auto travel lanes and a continuous center turn pocket. It is designed to induce - or "forgive" - speeding.

With the time, right at the end of twilight, there is a very good chance we'll read a bunch of things blaming the victim for dark clothing, not being lit up like a carnival wheel, not using a marked crosswalk, blah, blah, blah. Never mind the way the road is built for cars and for car speed. A crash at 20mph is not likely to kill a person, but Lancaster here is posted for 35mph, and with our tolerance for up to 45mph before any ticketing, any crash at lawful speed is nearly certain to result in death. A crash impact at any speed above that is certain to be fatal.

This post will likely be updated.

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

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)
  

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)
• Unknown person (Lancaster Drive)
  

Killed in 2020

• 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) 
  

Killed in 2019

• Marshall Leslie
• Linda Adamson (south Salem) and Stephanie Ashford (just outside Salem)  
• Jason Libel (on bike)
• Josephine Watkins
• Rodric Kenyon Drolshagen 

Killed in 2018

• Kirk Daniel Wilcox
• Jack Rice
• Alexandria Tereshka  
• Daniel Tibbot

Killed in 2017

• Srabonti Haque
• Sandra Hill
• Shatamera Pruden

Killed in 2016:

• Olivia Stroup
• Jaren Nash  
• Alex Armes
• Anthony Earnest  
• Baxter Harrell
• Unknown (just outside Salem)
• Bradley Goad (in Silverton)

Killed in 2015:

• James Alton
• Caroline Storm
• William Hatch 
• Travis Lane
• David McGregor  
• Michael and Christine Crossland 
• Rebecca Schoff

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)

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:

• "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)