A 24-year-old woman admitted to striking and killing a pedestrian and then fleeing the scene in southern Minnesota on the evening of Jan. 8. She has been charged with leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident and criminal vehicular homicide according to media reports. Both charges are felony counts. The charges were handed down in a Sibley County District Court hearing held on Jan. 9.
The fatal pedestrian accident took place at approximately 6:50 p.m. at the intersection of Fourth Street and Main Avenue in Gaylord. Emergency services personnel were dispatched to the scene when a passerby called 911 to report an elderly man lying injured in the road. Paramedics attempted to revive the 85-year-old man, but their efforts were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
A hit-and-run investigation was halted when the driver’s mother told emergency operators that her daughter had been behind the wheel of the car that struck the man. The woman returned to the scene shortly afterward to turn herself in. She told officers that the man stepped in front of her car and she did not have enough time to stop. She said that she left the scene because her daughter was in the car with her, and she wanted to drop the child off with her boyfriend. A motor vehicle check revealed that the woman has been cited for speeding on at least two occasions.
Experienced personal injury attorneys may initiate wrongful death lawsuits on behalf of the dependent family members of individuals who lost their lives due to the negligent actions of others. When the deceased individual was a breadwinner, wrongful death actions may seek significant damages for the family’s lost income as well as compensation for their out-of-pocket expenses like medical bills and burial costs.