Early Friday evening, just after dark, a person driving a pickup truck collided with Robert Duane Marshall on foot in the crosswalk. Marshall died later at the hospital.
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| via Reddit |
From Salem PD late last night:
Just before 5:00 p.m. today, emergency responders were called to the intersection of Center ST and High STS NE on the report of pedestrian struck by a vehicle.
The preliminary investigation by the Salem Police Traffic Team determined a pedestrian in the crosswalk on the east side of the intersection was struck by a pick-up truck when the driver initiated a left turn.
The pedestrian, a 66-year-old man, was transported to Salem Health where he died from the injuries received in the collision.
The driver, identified as Shawnda Blair, age 48, remained at the scene and is cooperating with the investigation.
The name of the decedent is not being released, pending notification to family.
The Traffic Team investigation continues, and as such, no citations have been issued or arrest made.
It looks like the person driving a large pickup was southbound on
High, made a left-turn eastbound onto Center and hit Marshall in the
crosswalk. (You can see the red pickup stopped in the reddit image.)
This where a driver struck and killed Marlene Moreno in a crosswalk in 2021. In 2022 a driver making a left turn into State Street from High Street killed Denise Van Dyke.
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| High Street is a problem downtown |
The MPO has identified High Street through downtown as one of the High Crash Corridors.
The size of the vehicle also is a factor, and a smaller car might have offered better visibility and less lethality. Advocates have been talking about this for a while, and in November it finally made the paper here.
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| November 2023 |
Addendum, January 14th
The paper's commitment not to name drivers in fatal crashes unless and until they are charged hampers their news story. They've really settled into a template in which the passive voice makes it look like just a minor "oopsie" and hides the agency of drivers.
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| Weirdness in the paper today |
Further, the headline here is strictly speaking true, but it seems to participate in an implied he said/she said framing: Police say the pedestrian died, but the driver insists the pedestrian did not die and is alive, etc. It's this weird disavowal and distancing in cases like this. Reporting the fact itself of a death is very rarely anything controversial, and the paper should be more direct with fact. The part in Police reports to be more skeptical about is not that a person died, but when they are quick to absolve a driver and blame a person on foot.
Probably if the paper were better about not erasing the driver, this second point would be less troubling, but in context it seems to make the fact of death something contestable or doubtful.
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| Active verbs in Salem Reporter |
By contrast, Salem Reporter doesn't erase the driver and does use active verbs. It is much more truthful and straight forward.
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)
- Ronald Bert Olbekson (Lancaster Drive) and Jose Romero Cruz (Highway 22 near Doaks Ferry)
- Kiristian Murauo (Cordon 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)
2 comments:
(Added media clips with some comment.)
(Updated with the name of the person killed, Robert Duane Marshall.)
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