In the past week, in separate crashes two drivers have struck and killed people on foot in the Salem area. In both instances Police took care to note people were not in marked crosswalks. On Lancaster Drive marked crosswalks are spaced inconveniently apart, and Highway 22 west of Salem has no meaningful crosswalks. Both crashes also occurred at night. Subtly in one case, more overtly in the other, the Police releases directed blame at the person on foot for improper walking.
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| Over 1/4 mile between signalized crosswalks at Sunnyview and Wolverine |
From Salem Police today:
A 64-year-old Salem man was killed in a traffic collision in the 2000 block of Lancaster DR NE just north of Sunnyview RD on Monday night, October 9.
Emergency responders were called to the area at approximately 10:00 p.m. on the report of a man struck by the driver of a sedan as he walked across Lancaster DR. The pedestrian, Ronald Bert Olbekson, was pronounced deceased at the scene.
The Salem Police Traffic Team responded, and their preliminary investigation revealed Olbekson was walking eastbound across Lancaster DR outside the marked crosswalk when he was struck by the car which was traveling northbound.
The driver, 20-year-old Daniel Chavarria Gaytan, and a 16-year-old passenger were uninjured in the collision. Gaytan remained at the scene and is cooperating with the investigation.
No citations have been issued or an arrest made as the investigation is ongoing.
As is easy to see on the aerial (at top), the area is rich with destinations and driveways, and it is reasonable for a person on foot to want to cross Lancaster without so much out-of-direction travel to the marked crosswalks on Wolverine or Sunnyview. All the driveways also create ambiguous corners that might look like unmarked crosswalks.
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| Lots of crashes on Lancaster (also Market) SKATS, 2017-2021 |
Lancaster is terrible, and for the five years of 2017-2021 you can see lots of crashes on it with people on foot. This is not some isolated case of supposedly improper walking. On Lancaster this is a whole system problem with a terrible, dangerous stroad that induces risky driving practices and punishes people on foot.
About a second crash there is less to say.
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| Highway 22 at milepost 22: Near former Holman Wayside and Doaks Ferry |
A few days ago from Oregon State Police:
On Thursday, October 5, 2023, at 9:51 P.M., the Oregon State Police responded to a vehicle versus pedestrian crash on Hwy-22, near milepost 22, in Polk County.
The preliminary investigation indicated a Honda Civic, operated by Abraham Hernandez Perez (19) of Gervais, was traveling eastbound when it struck a pedestrian, Jose Romero Cruz (41) of Dallas, who was in the lane of travel.
The pedestrian (Romero Cruz) was pronounced deceased at the scene.
The Honda operator (Hernandez Perez) suffered minor injuries and was transported for medical treatment.
Highway 22 right there is definitely not a place where a person on foot might reasonably be expected. There are no destinations, and the release was careful not to tie the crash to the intersection with Doaks Ferry, where there would be an unmarked, implied crosswalk. So we are left with a motorist walking from a disabled car; a person camping and walking to or from a campsite; or even a person intent on self harm. We may never know very much about this, including just what "was in the lane of travel" truly means. There is only the driver's side of the story, after all.
Still, Highway 22 is wide for highway speed, and in the urban area, it should be reconfigured for safe urban speeds and zoomy capacity deemphasized. (Even more recently, around the power substation, near milepost 23, State Police said a person was driving "at a high rate of speed when [they] lost control, left the highway, and struck an embankment." One person perished in that crash.)
This post may be updated.
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| Back in 2015 we said "troubling" but really, how troubled are we? |
Killed in 2023
- Marganne Allen (biking on High Street)
- Julia Aubrey Wade (on Lancaster Drive)
- Adam Joy (biking on Wallace Road near Wheatland)
- Michael Scott Campos-Kegley (on Chemawa Road)
- John Alvin Schwiewek (on Turner Road)
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)
- Denise Marie Vandyke (State and High)
- Linda Louise Wisher (Madrona Ave)
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)
- Samuel Lannigan (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)
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