An 83-year-old woman was arrested Sunday night after her car hit a male as he was crossing an intersection near the northwest corner of the UC Berkeley campus, according to police.
Around 8:40 p.m., Berkeley Police Department responded to a collision at the intersection of Hearst Avenue and Spruce Street, where officers found that a male in his early 20s had been struck in a crosswalk by a vehicle traveling west on Hearst Avenue, said Lt. Ed Spiller. The case is being investigated as possible driving under the influence, Spiller said.
The 24-year-old victim was transported to the hospital for critical injuries, Spiller said. Sections of Hearst were closed well into Sunday night as police investigated the scene. The victim — an Oakland resident — was still said to be in critical condition Monday afternoon, according to a BPD media release.
The suspect’s name is Mary Lou Cordova, and she is from San Pablo, said officer Jennifer Coats in an email. The suspect remained at the scene while police questioned her and was then booked into BPD’s jail facility early Sunday morning.
“The cause of the collision is still under investigation by the Fatal Accident Investigation Team,” the release states.
Chloe Hunt covers crime. Contact her at [email protected]
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That intersection is also extremely dark. There needs to be lighted cross walk there as soon as possible, but it’s really hard to see anyone in the crosswalk at night.
I have to cross that intersection when I have to rush somewhere, but if not, I usually try my best to avoid it, even if it means losing time. The placement of it is incredibly dumb. Drivers going down Hearst assume their next stop is the Oxford Street stoplight because there’s no logical indication that there’d be a crosswalk there. The city needs to put up those yellow-pedestrian lights before someone else gets hurt.
I cross this intersection every day to go to class. Regardless if she was under the influence, I constantly see drivers go way to fast through this intersection, driving feet from me. It’s dangerous and scary
Senior citizens need to be tested every year starting at age 60, and give up their licenses at age 80.
Unfortunately, no politicians are willing to stand up to the AARP.
Reminds me of a South Park episode…
This is coming from a selfish student who doesn’t own a car, but I would love if they closed the streets bordering the campus to cars. Make Bancroft, Fulton, Hearst, and Piedmont bike only streets around the university.
That seems like a rather extreme solution. I think it would only result in making the next streets over (i.e. Durant, Dana, etc) just as perilous. And it would effectively destroy the only north-south route on the east side of campus. Maybe it would make more sense to require seniors to retake the driving test every 5 years!
Since we’re talking about campus border streets, though, I am constantly amazed by the sour looks on the faces of those who choose to drive down Bancroft. Um, hello folks, it gets a LOT of foot traffic and you will have to stop a LOT. If you can’t handle that, use Channing or Haste to travel west.
Since I was being selfish, I figured I could go extreme. :)
There is an indication that the driver was under the influence of alcohol not that the accident was age related. Part of the problem is the speed of the West Bound traffic on Hearst and that is due to the stop light at Arch that is almost always green for drivers on Hearst. For pedestrians, it takes forever before it changes to Walk after pushing the button and once it does it stays green for about three seconds and then starts counting down from 9 seconds. It takes so long to change after pressing the button to walk that a person can walk down and cross at Spruce which is a much more dangerous intersection. The stop light at Arch has added to the danger of crossing on Hearst by greatly increasing the vehicular speed. Instead of aiding pedestrians trying to cross the street; its purpose is to thwart pedestrians from crossing so as to not inconvenience drivers.
If she was under the influence of alcohol, that’s certainly a factor, but it doesn’t mean that her age wasn’t also a factor.