Motorcyclist driving nearly three times the speed limit before hitting, killing pedestrian on Division Street

A 27-year-old man is accused of riding his motorcycle at 150 mph on Interstate 90 before throttling down to over 80 mph on North Division Street, where he struck and killed a pedestrian last week in Spokane.

Dallas C. Rogers was charged with suspicion of vehicular homicide in the death of 59-year-old Sean P. Brown the night of Aug. 24 near East Cleveland Avenue, according to court documents.

Police, who responded to the crash about 8:50 p.m., said Rogers took the Division Street exit from I-90 and headed north at “semi-reasonable speeds” before slowing for a traffic light at North Foothills Drive, according to a camera attached to Rogers’ helmet at the time of the crash.

The camera captured Rogers accelerating, while passing two speed limit signs indicating a 30 mph zone, to 83 mph as he traveled through the curves in the road before slowing to 82 mph right before the front left of his blue 2003 Yamaha YZFR6 struck Brown, according to documents. Surveillance cameras from a nearby business also showed Rogers hitting Brown as Brown crossed Division.

Officers found Brown lying in the far right northbound lane with serious injuries. Rogers was thrown from his motorcycle and found lying about 265 feet north of Brown on the east sidewalk of Division Street. Both were taken to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, where Brown died about 50 minutes after the crash, police wrote in documents.

Rogers’ motorcycle came to rest in the southbound lanes of Division, about 645 feet north of where the crash happened, police wrote.

Brown was crossing Division mid-block “in an area where signage prohibited pedestrian crossing,” according to police.

Officer Brian Shrier wrote Brown’s decision to cross the street was a possible contributing factor to the crash, but Rogers’ “reckless, rash, and heedless speed; traveling at nearly three times the posted 30 mph speed limit” before striking Brown was the “primary proximate cause” of Brown’s death.

“Furthermore, Mr. Rogers pre-collision driving behavior clearly demonstrated an obvious indifference for his own safety, and the safety of others,” Shrier wrote.

Rogers’ helmet camera showed him passing cars and lane splitting at 150 mph on I-90 before he got off the freeway, according to documents.

“Mr. Rogers continued recklessly operating his motorcycle in a rash and heedless manner, indifferent to the consequences until exiting I-90 at North Division Street, exit 281,” Shrier wrote.

Rogers had a motorcycle instructional permit, not a motorcycle endorsement, at the time of the crash, police wrote.

Rogers pleaded guilty in April to two counts of reckless driving in Spokane County District Court stemming from a 2023 arrest, according to court documents.

Rogers made his first appearance on the vehicular homicide charge Thursday in Spokane County Superior Court, where his bond was set at $50,000. He remained in the Spokane County Jail Thursday night in lieu of that bond.

He’s scheduled for an arraignment Tuesday.