The Theme of 2018: Another Pedestrian Hit by a Careless Motorist After Dark

[XLFD]

Just before September began, a pedestrian is killed crossing the highway at Jackson Road while she carried a bright white bag and wore white reflective shoes, at the beginning of this month, a pedestrian is killed walking across the highway towards Applebee's after dark when a pickup turns into him.  Both times, the pedestrian was held to fault for wearing dark clothes, being distracted or drunk, or otherwise violating common sense, if not the law. 

In both of those cases, that hasn't seemed to be the case, in fact, the motorist looks to be more at fault for not paying due attention to the highway in front of them:  either pedestrian should have been noticed for several seconds before the crash by an attentive driver.

Less than two weeks afterwards, another pedestrian is struck and seriously injured after dark, and once again it appears the victim will be blamed by the police and media.  The facts that are in so far doesn't appear to back that perspective.  The City of Ludington Daily News' Colton Mokofsky reports:

"The 55-year-old Scottville woman that was previously reported as being treated and released after being hit by a vehicle, was actually air lifted to Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital Monday after being hit by a Dodge Dakota pickup truck. The information provided by the Michigan State Police, Hart post, was inaccurate after the initial report this morning.
The accident occurred at approximately 7 p.m. when the woman’s car broke down on the side of the road. She left the vehicle and attempted to cross Johnson Road near Dennis Road in Amber Township, police said.

When she crossed, she was struck by the Dakota, whose driver did not have time to react in order to avoid hitting her.

Alcohol, speed and drugs are not considered to be factors in the accident, according to police.

The woman was transported to Spectrum Health Ludington Hospital, where she was later airlifted, according to police.
The exact speed that the Dakota was traveling is unknown, police said.
Police said it is unknown why the woman was attempting to cross the street."

Analysis

Those familiar with the intersection should know that Johnson Road, coming from either side, really doesn't have a 'side of the road', because on either side it is either a ditch or impassible foliage.  The report doesn't say a lot about which way on Johnson this occurred, but either way, if the woman's car was on the side of the road, off the road, it would be helplessly in a ditch.  

The pickup truck, traveling either east or west would be coming up to a stop sign with a 'stop ahead' sign up the road before that.  The driver should have been already slowing down.  The high profile of the Dakota pickup should have allowed the driver to see the woman even had she been behind the car.  Depending on how far away from the intersection, there would have been additional backlighting from the street lamp in the picture above.  

The rest may be speculation, but one may think that the woman may have been disoriented from going into the ditch, got out of her car and summarily got hit, presuming her car was going the same way as the Dakota.  If this happened, one would wonder why the pickup driver didn't avoid the situation if they were paying attention.  

Other scenarios where it is presumed that neither party was reckless has similar questions that should be asked.  Definitely, lack of lighting and the road slickness may have been factors, but what if she was legally and sensibly using the road as an accidental pedestrian and got hit by a pickup driver trying to avoid the car?  We may never know her side of the story and/or the truth if she doesn't pull through.  Our county sheriff investigators definitely wouldn't change their story if facts ,they will never look for, would point otherwise.