Salem Breakfast on Bikes: In Hit-and-Run Driver Strikes and Injures Person on Foot who later Dies

Monday, May 13, 2024

In Hit-and-Run Driver Strikes and Injures Person on Foot who later Dies

From Salem PD:

A Salem man injured in a hit-and-run collision last week has died.

At approximately 11:40 a.m. on May 5, emergency responders were called to the 4100 block of Rickey ST SE after a man crossing the street was struck by the driver of a vehicle who then fled the scene.

The crash investigation determined the pedestrian was attempting to cross Rickey ST approximately one block east of Lancaster DR when they were struck by a pick-up traveling westbound on the same street. The pick-up driver hit the pedestrian who was in the lane of travel.

The pedestrian, Randall Dale Wilson, age 75, was transported to Salem Health with injuries. He was later transported for further care to a Portland-area hospital where he passed away Wednesday night, May 8.

Officers identified the pick-up driver and arrested him at his home later that Sunday afternoon. The driver, Ramiro Gabriel Herrera, age 63 of Keizer, was lodged on the charge of failure to perform the duties of a driver.

This release is a little remarkable. It does not erase the driver in any misuse of the "hit by car" trope and it assigns agency to the driver rather than to a car or truck.

This is terrible news, but the rhetoric in the release is a real improvement. Hopefully this is a trend at Salem PD.

It will be very interesting to see if media revert to erasing the driver as they churn and revise the press release for their own publications.

Speed seems likely to be an issue also, and it will be interesting to learn more about that.

Back in January on this same stretch of Rickey, just a block away, there was another hit-and-run that did not apparently result in a person's death.

From Salem PD again:

Salem Police and other emergency responders were called to the intersection of Lancaster DR & Rickey ST SE at approximately 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, January 21, on the report of a hit and run involving a pedestrian.

There have also been Safe Routes to School projects nearby, and it is a problem area.

Addendum, May 15th

Here's the paper's note. It is a minimal rewrite and shows the importance of the initial rhetoric in the PD release. It does add that "no charges appear in online court records."