Erie woman cited for careless driving, speeding in September crash that killed pedestrian
Erie police have cited a city woman in a September crash at a West 12th Street intersection that killed a 57-year-old woman.
Summary charges of careless driving-unintentional death and failure to drive at safe speed were filed on Wednesday against Jennette R. Evankovich, 51, in the Sept. 19 crash at West 12th and Raspberry streets that killed Trina Pope of Erie.
Evankovich is charged by summons through the office of Erie 3rd Ward District Judge Tom Carney. No action had been taken on the citations as of Thursday.
Evankovich faces fines and costs on both citations.
Probe continues into fatal Erie crash: Erie police continue examination of car in fatal pedestrian crash at West 12th and Raspberry
Erie police Sgt. Thomas Dunmire, an accident investigator with the Erie Bureau of Police, wrote in the citations that Evankovich was driving a Toyota Camry "in a careless disregard for the safety of persons or property" when she unintentionally killed a pedestrian with her vehicle.
Dunmire wrote in the speeding citation that the Toyota was traveling 54 mph in a 40 mph zone when the accident occurred. Investigators said after the crash that police impounded the Toyota and downloaded data from the car's airbag control module in an effort to determine the car's speed.
The accident happened shortly before 7 a.m. on Sept. 19. According to investigators, Pope was crossing West 12th Street heading south when she was struck by the Toyota as it was traveling east on West 12th Street. Investigators said Pope was crossing West 12th Street on the west side of the intersection, where there is no crosswalk. Signs on that side of the intersection direct pedestrians to use a crosswalk on the east side of the intersection.
Investigators determined that the Toyota had the green light at the time of the crash, Dunmire said previously.
Pope was taken from the crash scene to UPMC Hamot, where she was pronounced dead at 7:19 a.m. on Sept. 19. Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook ruled Pope's death as accidental due to blunt-force trauma.
Evankovich was not injured in the crash.
The Sept. 19 crash occurred a little more than a month after a two-vehicle crash at the intersection of West 12th and Raspberry streets caused the death of one of the motorists.
Tyrone Mims Jr., 31, of Erie, died in the accident. Investigators said he was driving a BMW west on West 12th Street when it collided with a Fiat that was traveling north on Raspberry Street.
Authorities said the investigation into that accident determined that the driver of the Fiat, a 40-year-old man whose name was not released, was not at fault and no charges were filed.
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Other recent similar fatal vehicle crashes
Evankovich is the second person cited by Erie police this fall for careless driving-unintentional death in a vehicle-pedestrian crash that killed a person this year.
Citations were filed in November against Brittany C. Paulus, 22, of Erie, in a Jan. 2 crash at the intersection of West 26th and Cherry streets that killed pedestrian Salena Waldo, 48, of Erie.
Paulus faces summary counts of careless driving-unintentional death, speeding and driving without insurance in the accident. Investigators wrote in her citations that they determined that Paulus was driving her car at about 51 mph in a 25 mph zone when the car, which was traveling west on West 26th Street, struck Waldo as she walked north across the intersection.
No action had been taken on the citations filed against Paulus as of Thursday, according to online court docket information.
Two other fatal traffic accidents in Erie from earlier this year remain under investigation.
Erie resident Patrick Conner, 40, was killed when his bicycle collided with a sport-utility vehicle in the 4100 block of Peach Street on the evening of Sept. 14. Connor's bicycle, which was towing a trailer, was traveling north when it collided with a southbound Ford Expedition in the center turn lane.
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North East resident Barbara Best, 79, died on Nov. 3 at UPMC Hamot after she was struck by a vehicle at Third and State streets on the early afternoon of Oct. 29. Investigators said Best was walking east in a crosswalk on State Street when she was struck by a vehicle that was turning south onto State Street from the westbound lane of East Third Street.
Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNhahn.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Fatal crashes: Erie woman cited in crash that killed pedestrian
