Posted By Ron Kramer on September 9, 2009

Police tonight identified the woman who was killed earlier today while jogging through a crosswalk in Sandy, Utah. According to KSL News, the woman has been identified as 62-year old Renee Fleckenstein of Sandy.  Our condolences go out to her family for this tragic loss.

According to reports, the person who hit Fleckenstein made a left-hand turn into her as she was jogging through the crosswalk. The impact was severe enough to throw her over 30 feet into the air.

There are a lot of questions to answer in this unfortunate pedestrian accident. The biggest and most obvious one: could the driver have seen Ms. Fleckenstein? According to news reports, the driver that struck her says that she could not see the jogger because it was dark. According to http://www.sunrisesunset.com, the sun rose this morning at 7:02 a.m. in Sandy, Utah. However, before the sun rises, there is a period of light preceding the sun’s rising that could provide illumination sufficient for a motorists to see a jogger crossing a crosswalk. Tomorrow morning, around 6:41 (one minute later to reflect lighting conditions today) will be a good time to see if this is true.

Another issue is whether Renee Fleckenstein was wearing any type of reflective clothing. Further, I wonder if the woman who struck her lives in this particular area. During the warmer months, drivers should be aware and expect to see joggers out on the road and to exercise caution around them. It seems that the onus here is on the motorist who struck Ms. Fleckenstein since Utah law requires that motorists yield the right of way to pedestrians who are in crosswalks.

Categories: Utah Pedestrian Accident
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