Our pedestrian safety crisis has visited the MPO. A driver struck and killed a person in a downtown crosswalk yesterday afternoon.
It was just below the offices for our Metropolitan Planning Organization, SKATS, on the corner of State and High.
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| Making a turn, the driver apparently did not yield |
According to Salem Reporter, the person killed worked for the Council of Governments, which hosts the MPO.
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| From January 2020 SKATS TAC |
It is a terrible irony that our MPO now must count one of their own in the statistics on fatalities they collect, report, and analyze.
As they mourn, hopefully they will feel renewed passion for safer infrastructure and for safe travel by those on foot and on bike, more fully acknowledging the costs of our autoism and our dominant frame of free-flow and congestion relief.
From Salem Police:
At approximately 2:30 p.m., Salem Police patrol officers responded to the report of a pedestrian versus vehicle collision today at the intersection of State ST and High ST NE.
The preliminary investigation done by the Salem Police Traffic Team determined a pedestrian, identified as Denise Marie Vandyke, age 54, at the southeast corner of the intersection waited to enter the crosswalk at State ST to travel northbound. The driver of a van was stopped at the intersection for a red light, preparing to turn eastbound onto State ST.
Vandyke entered the crosswalk when the electronic pedestrian control device signaled her to proceed. The driver of the van, Teresa Sue Cook, age 57, turned onto State ST, striking Vandyke who was walking within the marked area.
Vandyke was transported by paramedics to Salem Health where she died from the injuries she received in the collision.
Cook remained on the scene and cooperated with officers.
No arrest has been made or citations issued as the Traffic Team investigation into the collision continues. No further information is available for release at this time.
The intersection reopened at approximately 5:30 p.m. after the scene was processed for the investigation and the roadway cleared.
The paper fully erases the driver in their first story.
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| Early story erases the driver |
By contrast, Salem Reporter is quite clear, and also centers the person killed. Their piece, "Pedestrian killed in downtown Salem remembered as 'great public servant'," starts:
A longtime local government worker died Monday afternoon after a driver struck her as she was crossing the street in downtown Salem.
This post may be updated.
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| 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)
- Kelly Joseph Fields (Cordon Road)
- Michael Ernest Summers (I-5)
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)
- 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)
5 comments:
It seems almost fitting this sad story follows a post about Safe Routes to School fighting over relative scraps to fund pedestrian-focused projects. If only the $20M+ story on the McGilchrist "improvements" also ran today - there would be three stories that speak volumes about our transportation priorities.
Yes, if you want to commit homicide with chance of little to no punishment, make sure you use a motor vehicle.
It's not clear to me from the police report whether the van driver was at the NE corner as your depiction shows or at the SE corner. Might she have been at the SE corner turnings right on red? If that was so I am reminded of an article in Streetsblog that appeared a few years ago: .
Re:Driver at the SE corner turning right on red?
High Street is one-way southbound here. A driver at the SE corner turning right would be northbound and driving wrong-way.
Police would have highlighted that if that were the case.
While the Police report did not specify the driver at the NE corner, given the one-way grid, that seemed like the best inference.
So if I have understood your question correctly, a driver at the SE corner is very unlikely to be the case.
If it turns out there is a different set of starting points to the crash, I will update as necessary.
You're right! Forgot about the one-way. :-)
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