Daniel Heun was in a crosswalk in Bend on Sept. 14 when he was struck by a car. He was injured and taken to the hospital with a head laceration.

It did not appear it was going to be a fatal accident when police arrived, but Heun died a few days later.

The driver of the car had only seen Heun at the last moment because the sun was in her eyes, she told police. The investigating officer did not believe she was reckless or impaired. It appeared to be a low speed crash. The officer examined the scene at Charbonneau Street and York Drive and concluded she just didn’t see him because of the lighting, angle and circumstances.

The driver was cited at the scene for failing to stop and remain stopped for a pedestrian.

Deschutes County District Attorney Steve Gunnels told us his prosecutors reviewed the reports and declined to make any criminal charges.

Not every pedestrian death by collision with a car is a criminal act. But the deaths should force us to think again about the safety of our streets as drivers, as pedestrians and as residents of Bend.

On most streets in Bend, pedestrians are an afterthought. Streets are designed for cars. Drivers do look out for pedestrians, people on bikes, dogs, other drivers and any number of other things. It doesn’t matter, though, if a crosswalk is marked or not, drivers in Bend are no different than most places. If you are a pedestrian, you can’t count on a driver to see you to slow down — let alone stop.

Our very own arbitrary, unscientific data is collected every day crossing Northeast 8th Street. It has some shiny, new marked crossings with signs reminding drivers to “STOP” for pedestrians in the crosswalk.

More cars don’t stop for our test pedestrian than do. People are sometimes glancing up from their phone as they drive past.

We have no reason to believe a cellphone was involved in the incident that killed Heun. But we did note Bend police did not seek the driver’s cellphone records. We wondered why.

Eric Hagan, a lieutenant in the patrol division with Bend police, explained.

This incident was somewhat unique in that the death did not occur at the time of the crash, he told us. At the time of the crash, the driver was cited for the appropriate violation. There was no evidence that anything criminal had occurred.

“For a cell phone to be analyzed the investigators would have to establish probable cause that a crime had been committed to apply for a search warrant,” Hagan wrote in an email. “At the time of the crash there was only a traffic violation and not a crime. Investigators can’t apply for a search warrant for a traffic violation. The driver remained on scene and cooperated with the investigation. If a person is using a cell phone while driving it alone is only a violation, not a crime and would not establish the criteria to apply for a search warrant. The investigators would need to have additional evidence of a criminal act in order to search a person’s cell phone.”

Drivers in the United States struck and killed 3,373 people in the first half of 2023, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association. Slower vehicle speeds might save lives. Better markings at crosswalks might help.

One thing we don’t know is how much of a problem in those deaths are drivers or pedestrians distracted by their phones. That data isn’t regularly collected for much the same reason it was not in this case. We know cellphones can be a distraction in accidents. We just don’t have the data to tell us how severe a problem it is, which makes it hard to judge what, if anything, to do about it.