Man dies when hit by pickup

A pedestrian was struck and killed Sunday evening while trying to cross North Division Street, just north of Francis Avenue.

The man had made it across five lanes of traffic but was hit by a pickup truck in the sixth lane just a few steps from the curb. He was struck at about 5 p.m. and was pronounced dead 15 minutes later at Sacred Heart Medical Center, said Spokane Police Cpl. Jon Strickland. Neither the victim’s name nor the pickup truck driver’s identity was released Sunday night. The victim was elderly, Strickland said.

The crash took place one block north of Francis. Four blocks of Division Street, both northbound and southbound, were closed to traffic for two hours after the crash. Apart from the hiss of red road flares and the distant howling of a neighborhood dog, the usually busy road was silent.

The street closure was standard protocol, Strickland said, and gives investigators the chance to safely search the dark road for any clues. Traffic was rerouted onto neighboring streets.

“We want to own the whole road until we know exactly what happened,” Strickland said.

The driver of the pickup had not been cited Sunday, but the investigation will continue for several days, Strickland said.

Witnesses told police the victim stepped into the road when traffic was stopped at a light two blocks to the north. The light turned green, however, just after the man entered the road, Strickland said. The man was walking west, crossing between the area of the Top Hat Pub and Moon’s Mongolian Grill.

One witness told police the man’s pace quickened to a “double-shuffle,” but he was wearing dark clothes and crossed in a dark area, Strickland said.

A streetlight directly over the crash scene was not lighted.

At least two other pedestrians have been injured or killed in the same area in recent years. In October 2003, a 49-year-old man was struck and killed by a pickup truck at almost the same location. In 2002, a woman was hit by a car and seriously injured when she attempted to walk across Division Street near NorthTown Mall.