On Wednesday the 14th at midday a driver on Lancaster Drive fatally injured a person on foot in a crosswalk.
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| A full set of marked crosswalks on Wolverine and Lancaster |
From Salem PD:
Since there are four left-turn pockets here, it's not clear where Ortiz started the turn and in which crosswalk Millard was walking. As a commenter suggests, the north crosswalk is most likely, but the south one is also possible, though less probable.A Salem woman fell victim to a vehicle collision on Wednesday morning.
At 11:40 a.m. on August 14, callers reported a pedestrian was struck at the intersection of Lancaster DR and Wolverine ST NE by a sports utility vehicle (SUV).
The preliminary investigation done by the Salem Police Traffic Team determined the SUV driver was in the dedicated left turn lane waiting to make a left turn. After the traffic signal cycled, the pedestrian began crossing eastbound within the marked crosswalk when the SUV driver initiated the left turn, striking the pedestrian.
The pedestrian, identified as Teresita Telesfora Millard, was transported to Salem Health with critical injuries. The driver remained at the scene and cooperated with the investigation.
The 67-year-old Millard succumbed to the injuries she sustained in the collision on Saturday afternoon, August 17.
The driver, identified as Mario Alberto Ortiz, age 53 of Salem, was initially cited for failing to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk, having no operator's license, and driving uninsured. With Ms. Millard’s death, the incident remains an active case and, as with all significant investigations, will be forwarded to the Marion County District Attorney’s Office for review upon completion.
The incident is Salem’s sixteenth traffic fatality of the year. In 2023, the Traffic Team investigated 12 fatal collisions that resulted in 13 deaths.
Additionally this is a key intersection for the high school, a medical clinic, and Family Building Blocks, and people on foot should be an obvious priority.
The first story at the paper, the churned release, has the headline, "67-year-old woman dies after being hit by SUV in northeast Salem" instead of "driver hits woman," even when the release uses unambiguous language, that the "driver initiated the left turn, striking the pedestrian." The print version retained it.
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| In Tuesday's paper |
Salem Reporter also used the "hit by car" framing.
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| via FB |
Addendum, August 29th
Salem Reporter has an update on Millard, "Salem woman killed by SUV remembered as generous, living a 'hard, yet wonderful life'."
It's a lot.
Teresita Millard had just finished picking up her husband’s medications when she was hit and critically injured by a driver while crossing Northeast Lancaster Drive...
Millard, 67, could not drive because of difficulty walking as a result of a polio infection. She would take the bus from near her home in West Salem off of Northwest Wallace Road to the northeast side of town to pick up medicine for her husband, William Millard, who is bedridden and insulin dependent....
Despite difficulty walking due to her disability, she insisted on picking up her husband’s medications herself. Taking the bus to the northeast side of town to go to the pharmacy was nothing out of the ordinary for her....
On the day of the crash Alegre said her uncle could not go without his insulin. The family called 911 and William Millard was taken to the hospital where he could be adequately cared for.
The headline repeats the "hit by car" trope and that's carried through the body of the piece. The default posture in the piece also assumes the normativity of driving. Being unable to drive was another instance of disability, something to be regretted. It's a lot more autoist than it needs to be.
The piece also highlights chronic illness, disability, and equity. Our transportation system should work well for people with diabetes and polio, not merely be some backup, second-class solution. If only because of age, most all of us will be "disabled" sometime in our lives. It's universal, not some niche condition on the margins.
This post will be updated.
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| Back in 2015 we said "troubling" but really, how troubled are we? |
Killed in 2024
- Robert Duane Marshall (Center and High)
- David Henten Stockam (Mission Street near I-5)
- Randall Dale Wilson (Rickey Street)
- Lois Marie Randall (Liberty Street NE)
- Patricia Ann Estrada (Edgewater on-ramp to Highway 22)
- Michael Sissell (State Street)
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)
5 comments:
(Updated with list of recent deaths and a brief note on the SJ headline and language)
As the release says Teresita was crossing eastbound, seems most likely they were crossing Lancaster via the north crosswalk. Do we have a leading pedestrian interval there? Is it city land or county?
Updated with clips from the SJ and Salem Reporter. As Evan suggests, the north crosswalk is most likely, but given all the driver errors, the south crosswalk is also possible. No leading interval is likely there yet, and the origin of releases is generally a reliable guide to jurisdiction. In this case, the release came from Salem PD, and the intersection is just inside Salem city limits.
I’m reading Wes Marshall’s “Killed by a Traffic Engineer.” SOOooooooo depressingly accurate.
updated with additional quotes from Salem Reporter
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