Posted on 02/09/2018 4:29:53 AM PST by SandRat
SIERRA VISTA – Police officials have completed an investigation into the death of Susan Dunbar, who was run over by a pickup truck in the Fry’s Food parking lot Dec. 28.
“The case was sent to the Cochise County Attorney’s Office on Monday for review of whether the driver is charged,” said Sgt. Brian Sebastian of Sierra Vista Police Department (SVPD).
County attorney Brian McIntyre confirmed his office has the file and that it will be given priority because it involves a death investigation.
“As for a timeline, I cannot provide one as there are many factors that can affect that,” he said.
On Wednesday, the department released a redacted version of the accident report that reveals the driver was a 38-year-old career military member assigned to Fort Huachuca.
According to the report, the driver consented to a breathalyzer test that came back as .000 and allowed inspection of the truck, a Nissan Titan, without a search warrant. He also provided a written statement and participated in follow-up questioning, as did his daughter who was in the passenger seat.
The Herald/Review is not publishing the man’s name as he hasn’t been charged or cited.
According to reports, Det. John Papatrefon of SVPD said the 71-year-old Bisbee woman was pushing a cart toward her car after leaving the grocery store around 1:30 p.m. She was struck by the front driver’s side of the truck and fell to the ground after which the rear driver’s side tire ran over her chest and head. The Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner noted the cause of death as blunt force injuries.
Surveillance video provided by Fry’s confirmed the driver’s account and that moments before the accident, the truck was northbound in the roadway in front of the store. The driver stopped to allow several people to walk from the parking lot into the store before he turned left, westbound, into a parking aisle.
The video also shows Dunbar was struck as the truck began the turn, which also matches the statement by the only known eyewitness.
Investigation
The report reveals Papatrefon, one of the department’s certified collision reconstructionists, looked closely at why the driver didn’t see Dunbar pushing her cart along the driver’s side of the truck.
A number of measurements and photographs were taken at the scene and of the truck, which has large off-road tires and was outfitted with a lift kit. It also has a large sideview mirror on the driver’s side and a front support pillar on the driver’s side.
“I measured from the ground to the front of the hood and it measured 4 feet 9 inches,” wrote Papatrefon. “From the ground to the top of his driver’s side mirror measured 5 feet 5 inches.”
Dunbar stood at 5 feet 3 inches.
Although the investigation didn’t find a definitive reason why the driver failed to see Dunbar walking in the parking aisle, Papatrefon believes a phenomenon known as inattentional blindness — also known as perceptual blindness — may have been involved. The driver was concentrating on people in the crosswalk, he wrote, so the driver’s brain may not have processed the fact there was someone or something near the truck.
“It is important to understand we see with our brains, not with our eyes,” he noted in his report. “When we are thoroughly engaged in the visual processing of one event, other important events, most especially unexpected events, may go completely unnoticed, even though the images of those other events appear on the retinas of the eyes.”
As a pedestrian I follow the laws of gross tonnage. A car or truck or even a bicycle will usually knock down a pedestrian.
As a former motorcyclist I know what is like to not be seen.
As a former bicyclist I know what its like to get sideswiped.
As an automobile operator I too, have avoided accidents with pedestrians, M/C’s, bicyclists, skaters, bigwheelers... who seemingly came out of nowhere! And who themselves, were not followers of the laws of gross tonnage.
I don’t know anything about perceptual or intentional blindness ,
but I think a lifted pick up with large mirrors would make it
difficult to see a shorter person immediately in front
of the vehicle.
How long till the effort to restrict pick up mods?
People are idiots and assume you see them when you dont
I ran into a movable sign in a curved entrance to a casino. I was slowly driving into the valet area and turning slight left. The sign was hidden by the left door post. I never saw it till I smashed it to pieces.
Some years ago here in Atlanta some moronic busybody woman set out to prove that pedestrians had the right of way by walking out into traffic on places like peachtree street. Defying the laws of chance as far as I know she never got run over, but what a completely idiotic thing to do. If anyone deserved to get flattened it was her.
I’m anal about that stuff in lots. If there’s a herd (kids) with some driver near me when I’m backing out or pulling into a stall or turning with a lot of pockets and invisible areas I ask if they’re all accounted for.
Most newer trucks are not the best for close quarters driving. I drive a standard Suburban. It also has large mirrors and pillars which take up a lot of forward sight. I tend to stick to the back of parking lots and negotiate into and out of parking spaces very slowly and carefully using all my mirrors and my head constantly on a swivel and always making sure I can pull forward out of the space if possible.
Been there. Looking left and right while at a stop sign, I have found looking only once is not enough for certainty. Twice before moving and then again before total commitment.
All can be accomplished without significant delay and much greater safety, and helps to avoid the failure to see, issue.
Maybe it’s because I don’t like all these high ground clearance vehicles and think current automotive Pickup truck SUV Design Eng are Idiots. My feeling to start, is that there currently is NO Ergonomics used in any of the any of the Designs. Given that distrust, I think a new Mattock episode could be developing. sigh, ....
That and Ergonomics.
After avoided her, barely, with luck and God’s help, did you pull into a gas station to clear your shorts and the car driver side interior?
I never saw her in person. She was on the local news - that’s how I knew she was doing it deliberately. I’ve had people mistakenly walk out in front of me and I was always able to stop in time, but walking out into traffic deliberately takes arrogance (and stupidity) to a whole new level
I drive slowly in lots, always looking, and sometimes a person just matches the angle of approach and speed, and stays in my A pillar blind spot almost until it's too late. It's a bigger issue on the driver side for me, as the pillar is closer to me, and thus consumes a bigger part of my field of vision.
I drive a Ford Fiesta, and I do the head-on-a-swivel thing in parking lots, too.
Needlessly endangering a human life isn’t worth the 2-3 second advantage gained, IMO.
The vehicle designers/engineers didn’t give any attention to Ergonomics.
We had to get a new car after our trusty Dodge started having issues once it hit 200K miles. They don’t make the model anymore, which I loved. Anyways, after test driving vehicles I found it very odd how they are making them with more of a blind spot than ever. Ended up with a Chevy. If someone is sitting in passenger seat and with the thick T-bar (I don’t know what it’s called) between the front and back window, I have to ask them to move their head when I’m backing up.
My wife aces the same in our new 2018 Dodge Dakota SUV. I swear none & I mean NONE, of the so called Design Engineers ever tried to gracefully get in or out, or ride as a passenger, without crossing thetheir geart an saying to themselves “Thank God, we’re not carrying any liquid NITRO!!!”
Nope. I actually have a harder time seeing pedestrians in parking lots in my Dad's Chevy HHR (very low to the ground, short windows/low roofline), as the two pillars are very close to me (narrow car) and I'm over 6' (low roof line and rearview mirror is big for the car). I don't like driving it, but when he visits, he insists I drive him around. I come closer to hitting more pedestrians in his car than I ever have in bigger vehicles. And I'm looking out his car at what would have been waist/hest high for this woman who was 5' 1" tall.
I came withing inches of backing over a small child in a parking lot..
A man passed my car as I was backing out,he was looking at his smart phone.
After he passed me I started to back out and I saw the very top of the head of what was a 3 year old boy.
This man was walking through a busy parking lot,looking down at his phone,with a small child FOLLOWING him. Who the hell does that?
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