Crime & Safety

Driver Strikes Pedestrian in Village

The City of Grosse Pointe police are investigating a crash in which a motorist making a turn struck a pedestrian in the Village on Friday afternoon.

A 56-year-old woman is being treated at an area hospital for injuries she sustained shortly before noon Friday after being struck by a motorist making a left turn in the Village. 

police received several calls regarding the crash, and one woman even drove to the police station to report it. Initial reports included information that the pedestrian had not gotten up after being hit on Notre Dame Street near Kercheval Avenue. 

The crash was witnessed by many walking through the Village as well as several people eating at .

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City Detective Christopher J. Lee said initial investigation would suggest the crash was truly an accident. The 25-year-old driver was turning left from Kercheval Avenue onto Notre Dame and began driving after the light turned green. She told police she did not see the woman she hit, he said. 

The sun may have contributed to limiting the driver's visibility as she was driving into bright sunshine, Lee said. The area where the woman was hit was in shade created by the building that houses Village Grille, but the area from where she was turning was in bright sunlight.

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The pedestrian's condition was not immediately known Friday. Public Safety Director Stephen Poloni, who stopped by the scene briefly, said the woman was believed to be semi-critical with a head injury when she was taken away by ambulance.

Lee said more than an hour after she was taken that she was alert and conscious while she was still lying on the street. She may have broken bones, he said, but officers were going to the hospital to check up on her after leaving the scene of the crash shortly after 1 p.m.

Officers used spray paint on the street to mark the crash and performed several measurements with the car still on scene. Notre Dame Street between Kercheval and Kercheval Place was closed for more than an hour as investigators worked. 

The pedestrian was walking east crossing the street from the corner near Village Grille and walking toward at the time of the crash. The driver, who Lee said was very shaken up, was likely driving 5 mph or less. There were no skid marks on the street and early investigations do not suggest any other factors contributed to the crash, he said.

An officer drove the dark blue Malibu to the station for additional evidence processing, such as photographs, and it will be released to the driver once that is finished, Lee said. The driver will likely receive a citation for failing to yield to a pedestrian, he said. 

A family member of the pedestrian was notified of the crash before she was taken from the scene but her name has not yet been released. 

This is the first pedestrian crash in the Village in a number of years, Lee said. There was one fatality in another area of the Village a decade or more ago, he said, noting they are infrequent. 

The metropolitan area has been plagued by motorist-pedestrian crashes lately, however. There was an early morning crash on I-96 Friday in which a stranded motorist was struck by a truck and several other fatalities in the last month of a similar nature. 


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