Spokane7
55°
July 6, 2011 in City
‘People have got to stop doing these things’
Unknown driver leaves injuries, questions
Helen Widener, 69, comforts her husband, Dennis, 66, in Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center on June 29. Dennis, who was injured in a hit-and-run accident while he was riding his bicycle near the corner of Division Street and Garland Avenue, died Wednesday.
(Full-size photo)
Dennis Widener lay in a hospital bed last week recovering from serious injuries suffered in a hit-and-run accident in late June, wondering who was responsible.
He was riding his bicycle in north Spokane, at Division Street and Garland Avenue, when he was struck down by a brown sedan, possibly a Toyota Avalon, whose driver kept going.
Spokane police said they have little to go on to investigate the hit-and-run felony.
Now Widener and his wife, Helen, are hoping someone might have information about who struck him at 5:45 a.m. June 23 a short distance from their home.
“Where did the humanity stop?” said Helen Widener during a visit to her husband’s room at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center. “People have got to stop doing these things.”
“I looked both ways. I am always careful,” Widener said.
He saw the car at the last second, and the next thing he knew, “Boom. I was down on the ground,” he said.
Pedestrians at a nearby parking lot ran to his aid.
Widener, 66, suffered multiple broken ribs. Skin was ripped from an arm, and he has black-and-blue marks across his body. An ambulance took him to the hospital.
He was wearing a helmet, which apparently prevented a head injury, he said.
On Tuesday, he was continuing treatment at St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute and was expected to return home later this week.
Widener’s case, while extreme, is hardly unusual in the Spokane area.
The Spokane Regional Health District says about 20 pedestrians and bicyclists are struck each month in the Spokane area.
Of the 997 pedestrian and bicyclist collisions occurring from 2006 through 2009, the health district said that 3 percent were fatalities while 11 percent resulted in serious injuries.
In 2009 alone, more than 1,000 hit-and-run accidents of all types, including non-injury accidents, were reported in Spokane County, according to the Washington Department of Transportation.
Spokane Police Officer Teresa Fuller said the city has two traffic investigators who try to follow up on collisions and traffic crimes. They are not able to investigate all cases.
Typically, hit-and-run accidents go unsolved because there is little evidence to point police to a suspect, Fuller said. Sometimes, police get tips from a body shop where a vehicle is taken for repair. Other times, neighbors or associates learn about an accident and report a suspect, she said.
“Those are the kinds of leads we look for to solve a case like this,” she said.
A hit-and-run involving an unattended car is a misdemeanor, while striking an occupied car and leaving the scene is a gross misdemeanor.
But when the accident involves an injury, a hit-and-run turns into a felony, punishable with a prison term.
Drivers might flee because they are afraid of being caught for something else, such as lack of insurance, impaired driving or having an outstanding arrest warrant, she said.
“None of those are justifications to leave,” Fuller said.
Widener, 66, a former Army paratrooper, was out riding early in the day to avoid traffic, he said.
He suffers from emphysema and, on his doctor’s advice, exercises with a portable oxygen unit to help his breathing.
The broken ribs caused him to go into a panic because it hurt to breathe deeply, Helen Widener said.
“It is the worst thing that could happen to him,” she said.
Returning farmland to a state of nature 
PlanB on July 06 at 1:37 a.m.
The humanity stopped because the other person involved in the accident doesn’t want to be shot dead because of their involvement.
I am exaggerating to make a point.
Point is that if you are honest, you will likely be punished far beyond what is appropriate. You won’t be able to make amends because it will take every resource available to defend yourself. Honesty gets you nowhere in our current judicial system.
Unless you are a law enforcement officer, in which case you will be rewarded.
RedCedar on July 06 at 8:07 a.m.
You’re as cynical as they come, PlanB, but you make a valid point. We really don’t know what went through the mind of the person who hit Mr. Widener. Perhaps she was gabbing on her cell phone and polishing her nails and didn’t even notice she’d hit anyone. Perhaps he was drunk as a skunk, with the same results. Perhaps he noticed he hit someone, but is already running from the law and knew he’d be thrown in prison for life for those murders in Wyoming if he was caught. Perhaps she made a cold-hearted calculation, along the lines you mentioned, that A) there were no witnesses and B) if she did stop to help, she’d be charged with vehicular assault and sued in civil court for actual damages, pain and suffering, lost wages, and punitive damages.
When I was a teenager riding my bike, a man driving a camper, passing on the right on a crowded road, caught the handlebars of my bike with the side of his camper which threw me and my bike onto the nearby hillside (better than getting thrown into the traffic). The man stopped, attempted to straighten out my bend handlebars, got back in his truck and left. I was still stunned and it took me a while to collect myself and get back on my way. That was the strangest reaction. I guess it wasn’t exactly “hit and run” because he did stop, but he didn’t check to see if I was okay and he definitely didn’t tell me who he was. Sometimes I wonder why he even stopped at all.
Krakor on July 06 at 8:47 a.m.
I agree PlanB. Alot more people would turn themselves in for accidents if 5-10 years in prison wasn’t a potential punishment lol. I hate to say it but I’m not going to prison for 5 years for an accident.
Kivaari on July 06 at 9:07 a.m.
It is unlikely that a jail term would be involved. Having negligently struck someone, might bring a notice of infraction and a civil case.
It is why having good insurance is recommended. Only lower-life forms leave the scene of a crash.
Krakor on July 06 at 9:19 a.m.
I’d say this states government and police forces are the lower life forms. Why should someone have insurance? Why does a private entity get enforced by a public police force? Don’t just judge people without putting a little more thought into it.
Ed Byrnes on July 06 at 9:41 a.m.
Many years ago I lost a friend to a hit-and-run driver who later turned herself in, and learned it was a DUI case, so I have biases on this issue.
We will only know the motivations of the driver if the are apprehended or turn themselves in.
Whatever the motivations I believe we have a superseding and more basic human obligation to stop, render the aid we can, and seek aid when we have any sort of collision. If someone fails to do that they still have an obligation to take responsibility for their actions and turn themselves in.
It could be argued that turning themselves in will not necessarily make the other party to the accident whole and that the state could, through punitive measures seeking to make the state whole for the violation of laws, actually interfere with the other party being made whole. A more direct approach of the perpetrator making the victim whole is what the Restorative Justice model is all about, and this is an approach worthy of considering.
I have written extensively in these forums about waning trust among us citizens of LLE and have offered some ideas that are realistic in that they have worked in other jurisdictions. My reading of the current article focused me on the basic human obligation aspect of this story so I was a bit surprised by the LLE-citizen relations emphasis in the postings. That being said I understand my fellow civilians hesitancy to engage LLE. I share that hesitancy because I cannot know in advance if I will have a responsible or rogue LEO responding, our local legal system appears to heavily tilted toward LLE and the blue wall in our LLE community is stronger than that of any other jurisdiction I am familiar with.
This leaves me stating that both this story and the subsequent postings surface some sadly unfortunate truths about my community.
Ed
Krakor on July 06 at 10:03 a.m.
We are products of our community. Maybe if we weren’t constantly battling our government and police for something resembling fair treatment, we’d be more willing to love our neighbors. As it stands, this city is falling FAST and it’s just going to get worse as more punks try to run the streets, and the cops are too busy trying to bust pot smoking hippies instead of meth heads. Oh, and shooting priests of course.
Marc Mims on July 06 at 10:30 a.m.
You don’t go to jail for 5-10 years for an accident, even one that causes injury or death. You might get a traffic ticket.
On July 1, 2012, the Vulnerable Users Bill goes into effect. It imposes stiffer penalties if you’re found guilty of negligent driving resulting in substantial bodily harm, great bodily harm, or death of a vulnerable user of a public way.
Even then, the maximum penalty is a $5000 fine and a 90-day drivers license suspension OR at your option, a $250 fine, driving school, and up to 100 hours of community service.
If you leave the scene of an injury accident you’ve committed a felony. When you’re caught, then you might very well go to jail.
MrNatural on July 06 at 10:34 a.m.
Here’s hoping a speedy and complete recovery Mr. Widener
http://www.stickmanknows.org/
Way cool site…check it out!
Byrdie714 on July 06 at 10:42 a.m.
No camera at this intersection?
RedCedar on July 06 at 11:59 a.m.
Only lower-life forms leave the scene of a crash.
we have a superseding and more basic human obligation to stop, render the aid we can, and seek aid when we have any sort of collision. If someone fails to do that they still have an obligation to take responsibility for their actions and turn themselves in.
I think both of these comments hint at the same thing, that good people ought to stop, help, and take responsibility.
The catch is that none of us is totally saintly or totally sub-human. We always make judgments about out “obligation”, what we should take responsibility for, and what we should just pretend didn’t happen and hope nobody else saw. Just looking at commonplace incidents involving driving shows examples of a wide continuum of possible responses. You notice your turn signal is burned out, but you drive with it anyway and figure you’ll fix it next weekend. You’re going to the dump and some garbage blows off your truck even though you thought you had it tied down. Do you go back and pick it up? You’re driving to the dump and a sofa falls off because you didn’t have it tied down, do you go back and pick it up? You’re driving to the dump and a sofa falls off and somebody runs into it and then somebody else runs into them. You’re pretty sure nobody saw whose truck it fell off of. Do you turn yourself in? You’re driving at night in the country and a cat runs out in front of you. You feel a “thump” and you don’t see the cat continuing across the road. Do you stop and try to find the owner? You’re driving in suburbia in daylight and a dog runs out in front of you and you hit it and hear it yelp and see it dragging itself off the road by its front legs. Do you stop and try to find the owner?
Obviously the next step up is hitting a person. There the obligation to stop is greater, but also the consequences of being held responsible for it are greater. Maybe I would draw my line somewhere between hitting a cat out in the boonies at night and hitting a person, but there’s still a lot of room in between those two extremes, and some people (according to this article obviously) draw the line even past the “hitting a person” point.
What I’m trying to say is very few of us are 100% law abiding all the time, especially regarding driving and taxes. So, once we get past the obligatory “the driver has an obligation to do the right thing”, we get down to figuring out how MUCH of an obligation a person has in each scenario and whether or not avoiding some of those obligations (like trying to find the owner of a possibly feral cat, or going back to pick up some hamburger wrappers that blew out of your car) makes you a “lower form of life”, or just a person who knows how to triage their morality.
Ed Byrnes on July 06 at 12:15 p.m.
RedCedar, you make a good point with supporting scenarios about being too quick to judge others. I am taking it to heart so thank you.
Ed
JayNW on July 06 at 2:37 p.m.
what ever happened to “DO the right thing”??
you people are cold and callous. sad and sickening really.
tylerr on July 06 at 3:45 p.m.
I agree with “JayNW”.
There are a number of ignorant and selfish comments on here. I may not agree with the way the “powers that be” are running things in the city or our country. But, I will always “Do The Right Thing” no matter the result.
If I hit someone like that, I would never keep going and leave them there. I would stop, help and face the consequences of my actions. This is why this country is in the state we are. People care less every day and they act on selfish desires and aspirations.
If we would stop thinking of only ourselves and care more about serving and helping others, this world would be a different and better place.
My heart goes out to the Widener family and for their loss. My prayers are with them.
Kivaari on July 06 at 4:08 p.m.
Krakor, No one is legally allowed to use public roadways without following the laws. The public corporation, essentially the same as a private corporation, can write the rules for use. Legal use means everyone driver needs to have insurance. If this now dead man had been hit by a legal person, that stopped, the family would have some recourse. Quite the ignorant response. LOW-LIFES DON’T HAVE INSURANCE.
LOW-LIFES DON’T STOP WHEN THEY HIT A MAN OR CHILD.
Kivaari on July 06 at 4:14 p.m.
Blaming local law enforcement for this? Cowardly, running from an injury crash. There are no accidents, this was negligence. It may have been the drivers fault, or the cyclist. But running is a cowards choice. This might even have been ruled the fault of the decedent and the driver turned what may have been a crash into a felony negligent homicide. Dirt bag. He/she might never even know they killed the man since they probably are not smart enough to read.
Cathyblueyes on July 07 at 10:08 a.m.
PlanB and Krakor particulary are simply trying to justify the failure of people to take responsibility for their actions. Sad. People don’t get 5 years in jail or any such punishment for an accident. The lady who killed Cooper Jones ( a local13 year-old bicycle racer) on his bicycle during a sanctioned road race received a fine. I have been in an accident and received: a fine. A lady failed to yield to me and I hit her and she received: a fine. Unless you are trying to defend felons or those with other extenuating issues, you are way off base. It is disgusting that killing someone can be rationalized. She is right in that the humanity is gone in some people, obviously evident in some of these posts. This person needs to answer for their actions. Who is OK with thier own loved one being left bleeding in a street? Pathetic. The person may have panicked and fled but can still do the right thing and step forward. Poor judgement has different levels of damage and in some cases can be sheer bad luck with a very high price. Blaming the government for lack of conscience and taking responsibilities for one’s own actions is a pitiful cop-out.