I see from the SI article that he was walking along Route 4. Also a pretty big road, with not a lot of room along the side. Not a good place to be walking.
"Not a good place to be walking."
Especially with you back to the traffic, huh? Still, drivers have a responsibility to keep their car between the lines and not drive on the shoulder. I'd probably give the driver a minor ticket. Maybe the cops were afraid to give lawyers an additional tool to beat the driver up with in the case of a civil suit against him by the parents. I expect his insurance company is on the hook for something as it is. Sad story for everyone involved, no doubt.
Could very well have been caused by a culture gap. The article doesn't mention the victim's hometown, but this occurred in an urban area with heavy traffic. People in urban areas don't generally walk on the shoulders of highways, except for motorists whose vehicles are disabled. On the other hand, walking on the shoulder of a highway would be a an ordinary thing to do for a young man from a rural or exurban background. So he may have made a tragic error in judgment - assuming that there was no alcohol involved on the part of either the driver or the pedestrian.
But, again assuming no alcohol, why would the driver of the van would have been using shoulder at all?