Woman With Major Injuries in McKinleyville After Being Hit by Car
A vehicle struck a woman near the intersection of Central and Hiller in McKinleyville about 7:05 p.m., according to the CHP Traffic Incident Information Page.
The woman reportedly is “awake and sitting in the middle of the roadway” with a laceration to her head.
The CHP page reports that this is a major injury crash.
According to Caltrans’ QuickMap, traffic is backed up on Hiller and on Central. A tow truck is responding to the scene for the involved vehicle. Please be careful if you have to drive through the area.
According to a Facebook post made in July by Humboldt Bay Fire, “Our rates of vehicle-versus-pedestrian fatalities are…some of the highest in the country. In 2013, the last year for which data is available, California recorded 1.83 pedestrian fatalities per 100,000 residents. Nationally, the rate was 1.34. In Humboldt that year, it was 4.44.”
Please remember that information gathered from initial reports is subject to revision as more facts become available.
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Gotta have the facts here. No major injuries, no tow truck necessary and honestly people should try wearing more visible clothing when walking at night (instead of dark colors) and in the rain! Oh and CROSSWALKS are there for a reason!!! Use them!
Nancy, were you there? The CHP Traffic Incident Information Page reports this is a major injury crash and states that a tow truck was 97 (on scene.) But of course an actual witness is better than a report online.
Yes I was. Tow truck showed up but no need to tow for a simple cracked headlight cover. As far as major injuries, laceration to the head isn’t a major injury it’s a laceration.
I’ll ask the CHP tomorrow. The Public Info Officer was on the road today and not available for questions.
Honestly drivers should try driving more carefully, slowly, and attentively when driving at night and in the rain!
Depending on where exactly she was, much of the fault could rest on the driver and/or the road design – when you’re crossing Hiller northbound at Central, the crosswalk dead-ends in a very confusing way and there’s no sidewalk, you have to either walk in the street, walk through the Moore’s parking lot, or try to walk through the slippery pine needles and bumpy roots of the parkway strip.
If you’re walking down Hiller on either side you again have to contend with disappearing sidewalks.
Their is literally No sense of safety in that crosswalk. Im amazed they have a crosswalk that ends into a pole .??
And the crosswalk does no good if people aren’t using it!
You’re absolutely right however this pedestrian was NOT using the crosswalk, was wearing dark clothing and yes it was dark and pouring rain.
And? Was the driver’s phone out? Were they messing with the radio buttons? Were they going the speed limit?
The pedestrian had significant head trauma so yeah, it was major injuries.
Yes, I confirmed this with the CHP.
[Edit] nancy you should have all the facts[Edit]. Just because you dont see an injury doesn’t mean its not there.
Pedestrian crossings with user activated flashing lights that are have good area lighting might help. But crosswalks can also give a false sense of safety to pedestrians. There’s a lot of distracted driving due to screen displays in cars and obviously, the wide spread use of cell phones for talking, texting or internet usage. Really, look around and it’s easy to see so many people using their cell phones while driving. There’s also situations where even if the driver is looking at the road, their mind is on the conversation not the situation. Kind of like wide awake sleeping or day dreaming.
While there is already a traffic light at the intersection where it was reported, the lighting is poor, and the sidewalk actually disappears in places. And, she could have been completely correctly using the crosswalk with the light, and been hit by someone making a right turn.
Caltrans latest crash report is for 2018.
Humboldt county has 136,000 people. There were 5 pedestrian fatalities that year, for a rate of (5/136000) = 3.7 per 100,000.
Mendocino county also had 5 pedestrian fatalities that year, but their population is only 91,600, for a rate of 5.5 per 100,000.
These numbers change every year, and “cherry picking”, as it’s called, numbers from a particular year to make a point is one of the more effective ways of misleading people without outright lying.
Comparing a rural county like Humboldt, with the statewide average for California, is another good technique, lol.
Friday, I’d like to check out that Caltrans report if you could send me a link. I’m wondering if those are only ones on Caltrans controlled areas which would preclude anything in Eureka, for instance, except Broadway.
I know where Humboldt Bay Fire got their numbers it was from this report: https://humboldtgov.org/DocumentCenter/View/71701/2018-Community-Health-Assessment-PDF
As to comparing Humboldt, a rural area, with California as a whole, I’m a little confused what you mean. When the deaths are shown per 100,000, that is supposed to level the comparison.
Here is a link. You raise an excellent point – I was tired last night when I posted, and I didn’t notice that the data in the Caltrans report is only for state highways. My reference about comparing counties with the state is that the state as a whole has far different patterns of roadways and behavior. For instance, the percentage of people walking along roads, especially at night, is probably different in rural areas than it is in such an urban state as a whole.
Mostly, though, I wanted to point out that all it takes is a difference of one or two events in a year (such as pedestrian fatalities) to really skew a “per hundred thousand” kind of statistic. Picking any one year out of the bag will blind you to any real patterns there may be.
That’s true that an anomaly can really dramatically skew what something looks like. But I know that several years we’ve had over five. I did a quick check online and NCJ says that in 2015 we had at least 7. https://www.northcoastjournal.com/humboldt/crash/Content?oid=3249172
This implies there were 10 at least in 2017. https://www.northcoastjournal.com/NewsBlog/archives/2017/12/26/a-deadly-year-in-humboldt-2017-marks-record-for-road-deaths
Thanks for those links! This information is really hard to find… collected and published (or not) by various agencies.
All the best to the woman struck by a vehicle near the intersection of Central and Hiller in McKinleyville. I wear bright reflective colors when walking our streets at night and assume drivers don’t see me in cross walks.
That’s nice for you, but they’ll still blame you for getting killed by a negligent driver unless the driver is clearly falling down drunk e.g. Ryder Stapp and Marci Kitchen.
A driver hit a road construction vehicle on Broadway last week and those things are covered in bright colors, flashing lights, and reflectors.
Legalizing narcotics just isn’t a great idea driving while under the influence is not good stoned driving bad judgment be careful out there folks humboldt county is where the crap over rides the good . Isaiah chapter 5 verse 20
Wow, if they needed a tow truck for the vehicle after it hit the lady I am amazed she survived the accident. People please watch out for crosswalk users. You never know when one will be walking across the street. Some don’t pay any attention to the lights or traffic. I pray she will make a complete recovery from her injures.
Tow truck showed up because an accident was reported. It wasn’t need so they left and the car was driven home with a simple cracked headlight cover.
these people that get hit would be extremely surprised that as a child i learned that you do not depend on the driver to see you and that is all it takes to never get hit. i wonder why so many people around here refuse to just glance and if need be get out of the way!!
I wonder why so many drivers around here refuse to just glance and if need be stop or slow down!!
I wonder if it was the same lady that entered the roadway at the top of Bella Vista last week right in front of me. Thank goodness I saw her in time. She didn’t even look I slammed on my breaks had to come to a complete stop going 37 mph ( most go a lot faster up that hill) I honked my horn and she jumped out of her skin and looked at me like I just woke her up and she had no idea why a car would be driving on a very busy three lane road! She just stared at me and I had to motion her on to continue across the road before someone else came along and hit her (or me). No one should ever drive intoxicated but also people should not walk near roadways intoxicated either. There was a death in that same place just last year. Please be safe and don’t put your life and safety in other peoples hands.