Greater City Providence

ProJo: Driver, 19, who fled hit-and-run that killed Mount Pleasant teacher identified

walkinpvd-iconA 19-year-old woman whose car allegedly struck a Mount Pleasant High School teacher, who later died, reported the incident to the police almost two hours later.

Anne-Marie Dansicker, 53, was hit around 5 p.m. Wednesday as she was walking away from the school on Mount Pleasant Avenue, and the driver, Tarchae Powell of Providence, fled the scene, the police said.

[…]

Dansicker was transported to Rhode Island Hospital, where she later died, the police said.


NO! The 19-year-old woman’s car did not allegedly strike and kill Ms. Dansicker. Tarchae Powell allegedly drove her car into Ms. Dansicker and Tarchae Powell allegedly killed Ms. Dansicker. The car is not accused of any crime. Why is this so hard for journalists to admit? The car did not do it, the person driving the car did.

Jef Nickerson

Jef is Greater City Providence's co-founder, editor, and publisher. He grew up on Cape Cod and lived in Boston; Portland, Maine; and New York before settling in Providence. In addition to urbanism, Jef is interested in art, design, and ice cream. Please feel free to contact Jef if you have any question or comments about Greater City Providence.

6 comments

  • Exactly. Drivers of automobiles are responsible for the operation of their machines. It makes me very upset whenever I hear the media blame the automobile for a fatal hit and run and NOT the operator of the vehicle. The other part of the all too common murders of pedestrians that gets my goat is the media’s use of the phrase: “No charges were filed”. Duh. Is that because police can’t file charges against an inanimate object or because the murderer is a person of privilege ( or related to one ) ? On the other cynical hand, maybe it’s all about insurance claims. I mean, the killer wants a pay off to repair any damage to their precious car, right? So, they blame the victims.

  • Your general comment about lack of prosecution for injuries and death is why the RI Bicycle Coalition has been working on getting a stronger “Vulnerable Roadway User” law passed for the last 3 of the last 4 legislative sessions. Current law requires that “gross negligence” be proven in order to pursue a charge for striking someone and causing serious injury or death. And then the fine is only $85. It’s a high bar for proving gross negligence.

    At least in this case, the hit-and-run statue should be used. That law indicates 1 year license suspension in the case of leaving a crash scene, death resulting.

    The attendant problem is that we have a culture of accepting that road deaths will occur and are just freak happenstance and that drivers of any sort can’t be held to account (privileged or not).

  • TV news indicated the victim, Ms Dansicker was in a crosswalk. The law is very firm, the motorist who killed her faces the possibility of a $85 fine for failure to yield.

    I’ve heard the AG office say they deal primarily with criminal cases and simple failure to yield is not criminal. The low fine for that, even if death resulting, is not their jurisdiction, unless they can prove criminal behavior which as Matt said is a high bar, though hit-and-run may apply in this case.

    The AG is interested in proving DUI death resulting cases, but in hit and run it may be too late to check on that when the driver is identified. I’d also like to know if the driver was distracted by a cell phone at the time of the killing. Even if death resulting, I don’t think the state has a right to check cell phone records, and I’ll note the State House of Representatives would not act on a Senate bill to ban hand-held cell phone usewhile driving (which would have made it possible to actually enforce the no-texting-when-driving law we do have, sponsored by Rep Kilmartin, now the AG.)

  • The failure to yield may not be criminal but the leaving the scene charge would be.

  • Im surprised at the leniency of the charges against Powell. In many states leaving the scene of a accident alone is criminal. Death caused by the driver is generally considered vehicular homicide

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