A 58-year-old Seattle man was struck and killed by a small pickup truck as he tried to cross the Benson Highway at about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday in the Panther Lake area of unincorporated Kent.
Maximiliano Diaz-Salazar was not in a crosswalk when he was struck by a vehicle as he attempted to go from east to west across the northbound lanes near the 22000 block of the five-lane highway, said Dan McDonald, spokesman for the Washington State Patrol.
“The cause of the crash was a pedestrian jumping out in the middle of the road and he didn’t see the car,” McDonald said in a phone interview Thursday.
A 43-year-old Kent woman, the driver of the 2000 Toyota pickup, told the State Patrol that she had no time to react once she saw the man crossing the street, also known as State Route 515 and 108th Avenue Southeast.
This marks the second pedestrian-car accident in the last seven weeks along the similar section of the Benson Highway, where posted speeds are 40 mph. A 22-year-old Kent woman was injured by a car at about 5 a.m. Oct. 27 when she tried to cross in the 22400 block of the highway to catch a bus. The woman was not in a crosswalk.
She was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for treatment of serious injuries, and has since been released.
“It’s not illegal but you need to yield the right of way (to a vehicle),” McDonald said about pedestrians crossing a street while not in a crosswalk.
Kent fire officials recommended in the press release that pedestrians should use a crosswalk while crossing any street, especially at night when visibility is reduced.
In the Wednesday night accident, Kent Fire Department and King County Medic One emergency crews found the man lying unconscious and unresponsive in the road and were unable to revive him, according to a Kent Fire Department media release.
The driver told investigators that she saw a sports-utility vehicle in the right lane as she traveled in the left lane and that the man apparently waited for the SUV to pass before he darted out in the road.
Investigators did not know where the man had planned to go as he attempted to cross the highway. There are several bus stops in the area.
It is up the state Department of Transportation to determine whether the Benson Highway needs any safety improvements near where the pedestrian-car accidents occurred, McDonald said.
“There’s a lot that goes into installing a crosswalk,” McDonald said. “You can’t just put one in the middle of a road if it’s one that drivers can’t see very well.”
Jamie Holter, spokeswoman for the state DOT, said traffic officials have looked at the history of accidents along that section of the Benson Highway, but she was still trying to track down traffic planners Thursday to see if there are any proposals to improve pedestrian safety along the street.
That section of the highway will become part of the city of Kent in July because of the Panther Lake annexations approved by voters in November.
“What happens might be up to Kent,” Holter said in a phone interview Thursday morning. “Or maybe if we start something Kent takes it over.”
Talk to us
Please share your story tips by emailing editor@kentreporter.com.
To share your opinion for publication, submit a letter through our website https://www.kentreporter.com/submit-letter/. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. (We’ll only publish your name and hometown.) Please keep letters to 300 words or less.
