Driver kills Kelly Joseph Fields on Cordon Road

In a late night crash a couple of days ago, a driver killed Kelly Joseph Fields on Cordon Road near the Mushroom Plant redevelopment and Auburn Road.

Cordon Road looking north to Auburn Road

From Marion County Sheriff:

On November 1, 2022, at approximately 12:48 a.m. a 911 caller reported a pedestrian was struck by a car on Cordon Road NE near Auburn Road NE, just east of Salem. Emergency responders arrived on scene within minutes of the call, tragically the pedestrian was pronounced deceased at the scene.

The pedestrian has been identified as Kelly Joseph Fields (44) of the Salem area.

The 22-year-old female driver of the involved vehicle, a 2011 Toyota Camry, remained at the scene.

Investigators from the Marion County multi-agency CRASH team were called out to investigate the incident. Preliminary information suggests the driver had been traveling northbound on Cordon Road NE when the pedestrian was struck in the lane of travel. There is no indication speed or impairment by the driver contributed to the crash.

The investigation in the crash remains open, no additional information is available for release at this time. [map link added]

Cordon Road is a problem. Earlier this year a driver killed an unnamed person also on Cordon Road. And there was the horrific crash on Cordon and Sunnyview with a van of agricultural workers back in 2019. As you think about the Cordon Road design alternatives, on which there will be a note later, consider safety and speed. (Update: Link added)

In the rewrites of the Sheriff's release, the Statesman erases the driver in the passive voice, but Salem Reporter uses an active verb.

Passive Voice and Erasing the Driver in SJ

Active Voice in Salem Reporter

 Columbia Journalism Review  (2018)

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)

This post may 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)
• 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)
  

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 (biking on Lakeside Drive)  
• Joseph Rodriguez (Lakeside Drive)
  
• 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

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)