City employee involved in car-vs.-pedestrian accident

Spokane police are investigating a collision involving a truck and a pedestrian around 5:45 p.m. Monday near the intersection of Northwest Boulevard and Buckeye Avenue. Police say Dan Hirst, a city of Spokane employee, was driving a city pickup truck southeast on Northwest Boulevard when he struck a 69-year-old woman who was crossing the street at Buckeye Avenue. Hirst and several witnesses called 911 and the woman was taken to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center with serious injuries, according to a Spokane Police Department news release. Hirst has been an inspector in the city’s Engineering Services Department since January 2002. He is now on paid administrative leave, police said. The woman’s name was not released, and her condition tonight was not available.