In Östersund, Sweden, an ambulance driver responding to a priority one alarm at the end of 2022 drove with blue lights but without sirens, according to official sources. The ambulance collided with a car at the intersection of Färjemansgatan and Kyrkgatan while running a red light, the official sources said. This collision caused the car to rotate and then hit a woman who was walking, and the woman was taken to the emergency room but later died from her injuries. The ambulance driver was prosecuted and convicted by Östersund District Court for careless driving and causing another's death, the court stated. However, the driver appealed and was fully acquitted by the Court of Appeal, which wrote in its verdict that the driver made an obvious misjudgment but not a deliberate risk-taking of a serious nature required for conviction. The Court of Appeal concluded the driver was not so negligent as to be convicted for causing another's death, leading to acquittal on both counts, though the court was not unanimous, with two of the five members wanting to uphold the district court's verdict.
In Stockholm, an elderly driver in his 80s is being prosecuted for gross careless driving, causing bodily harm, and causing another's death, both as gross crimes, as Aftonbladet first reported, according to the indictment. The indictment states the man failed in his attention, as the pedestrians had a green light at a crosswalk, and instead of braking at the crosswalk, the man accelerated when he drove into the two pedestrians. The prosecutor argues he did wrong by driving despite knowing about his medical problems with poorer control over his legs and feet. When police arrived, a crowd had gathered at the scene, including several licensed healthcare personnel trying to help the victims, and one of the women who was hit was declared dead shortly after the accident.
In Stjørdal, Norway, Emil Andersen's mother, Aud Andersen Sandodden, died in a traffic accident in September 2024 after being hit by a car while on an e-scooter, multiple reports indicate. A man in his 50s is charged with negligent homicide and driving under the influence of amphetamines in the Stjørdal case, but does not admit guilt, according to the charges. The investigation into Sandodden's death took nearly 420 days, over twice as long as average for similar cases.
In Lincolnshire, England, Madeleine Lonsdale was jailed for 14 months for causing a crash near Grantham in June 2025 that killed Harrison Carter, 18, and George Stephenson, 17, multiple reports indicate. Lonsdale reached speeds up to 100mph, misjudged a bend, and was effectively racing another vehicle, the reports said.
Internationally, Lisa Di Palma, 61, was run over twice by an alleged drunk driver in Fethiye, Turkey, in August 2025 and died a week later, according to multiple reports. The driver in the Di Palma case was said to be four times over the legal drink-drive limit in Turkey and faces a criminal trial. In Platte City, Missouri, Tessa Walker, 18, died in a crash on March 22 when a BMW M4 driven by Om Patel flipped over and burst into flames, multiple reports indicate. Alcohol and speed were likely factors in the Missouri crash, and Om Patel had prior speeding tickets, investigators said, but no charges have been filed as of the report.
Hit-and-run incidents have shown delayed or absent emergency response. Aaron Jones, 38, was killed by hit-and-run driver Daniel Wyke in Llanpumsaint, Wales, on December 23, 2024, while walking his dog, multiple reports indicate. Wyke continued delivering Chinese takeaway after the crash and did not call emergency services, the reports said.
Youth fatalities have involved seatbelt non-use and reckless adult behavior. Patience Price, 18, died in Douglasville, Georgia, after being ejected from a Mercedes on her way home from prom because she was not wearing a seatbelt, multiple reports indicate. The driver in the Georgia crash did not appear impaired, and the crash occurred after a sharp turn, police said. In Cedar Springs, Michigan, Estella Johnson, 3, was killed after Daniel Bryant told her to race his pickup truck and she was run over, police said. Bryant admitted to consuming a half-gallon of alcohol daily and was arrested for reckless driving causing death, according to an affidavit.
He was two blocks from home.
Other cases include a reversing accident and a Finnish overtaking crash with court skepticism. Rufus Davies, 2, was killed in Marlborough, Wiltshire, after being run over by a family friend's reversing car in May, an inquest heard. In Kittilä, Finland, a 20-year-old man was sentenced to 3 months' conditional imprisonment for two counts of negligent homicide and aggravated endangerment of traffic safety in a fatal crash in November 2024, according to multiple reports. The Finnish crash occurred when the man attempted to overtake a machinery transporter on Highway 79, colliding with an oncoming car and killing a couple in their 50s, the reports said. The defendant in the Finnish case claimed a gust of wind caused the crash, but the court found the explanation not credible.
In Bristol, England, Donna Crossman, 53, died after being hit by a car while walking to a Take That concert in June 2024, multiple reports indicate. Fiona Hodges, 69, has been charged with causing death by careless driving in the Bristol case and is due to stand trial on 13 April, according to the charges. 133 people were killed or seriously injured on Bristol's roads in 2024, the highest in over a decade, figures show.
A police chase in DeKalb County, Georgia, led to a pedestrian death. On February 12, 2026, at approximately 8:45 p.m., a DeKalb officer attempted a traffic stop on Candler Road near Whites Mill Road after observing illegal window tint and an obstructed license plate, the DeKalb County Police Department said. The driver initially pulled over but then fled, leading to a pursuit where the suspect vehicle was involved in a collision resulting in a pedestrian fatality, the department said. DeKalb officers were pursuing the vehicle southbound on Candler Road when the driver entered the center turn lane and hit a pedestrian with the front of the car, investigators said. The driver continued south on Candler Road, and the pursuing officer eventually lost sight of the vehicle, sources said. The pedestrian was identified as 59-year-old Terry Lowman of Decatur and was pronounced dead at the scene, sources said. The Georgia State Patrol was contacted by DeKalb County Police on Feb. 12 to investigate the fatal crash involving a black Mercedes-Benz sedan and is the lead agency investigating the fatal collision, sources and the department said. DeKalb County Police will conduct a review of the chase, which is standard procedure, the department said.
In Washington D.C., police are searching for the driver of an SUV who hit and killed a man in Northwest early Wednesday morning, sources said. Police believe the occupants of the car were responsible for multiple robberies before the fatal hit-and-run, and a police source said preliminarily this appears to have been a robbery, with the driver seeing the victim take money from an ATM and then running him over at a crosswalk. Investigators believe the individuals in a White 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe with Maryland plates were responsible for two other robberies in the half hour before the incident, the police source said. FOX 5 obtained footage showing the car hitting the victim, who was dragged on the hood for half a block, and occupants taking something from him as he lay on the ground, sources said. The victim is believed to be around age 50 and has not been identified.
In Buena Park, California, police are searching for a suspect who hit and killed a pedestrian before taking off and abandoning the car, sources said. The hit-and-run crash happened around 1:50 a.m. Monday near the intersection of Beach and Artesia boulevards, and surveillance video shows a man walking across Artesia Boulevard when a driver going south on Beach Boulevard with a green light crashed into him, and the driver fled, sources said. The victim was rushed to UCI Medical Center where he later died from his injuries, and the suspect vehicle, a white Kia sedan, was found abandoned about eight miles south of the crash scene in Garden Grove, according to Lt. Jon Shaddow with the Buena Park Police Department.
In Urbana, Illinois, police searched for the person who caused a wrong-way collision early Saturday morning that killed a pedestrian and injured a police officer, sources said. A red Buick Verano was speeding the wrong way on Mathews Avenue when it hit a University of Illinois police squad car on Green Street around 2:13 a.m. on Saturday, officers said in a press release. The vehicle then spun off the roadway onto the northeast corner of the intersection, where five pedestrians were preparing to cross the street, the officers said. The pedestrian died from injuries at CARLE Hospital later on Saturday, identified as 22-year-old Perry Lee by the Champaign County Coroner, sources said. The officer was treated for minor injuries, a news release said, and the driver fled the scene on foot and had not been located as of Saturday evening.
In Vallejo, California, police are searching for a driver who left the scene of a multi-vehicle crash in which a pedestrian was killed over the weekend, sources said. Shortly after 5 a.m. Saturday, officers were called to the intersection of Sonoma Boulevard and Redwood Street after a report of a traffic collision involving more than one vehicle and a pedestrian, sources said. First responders found the pedestrian, an adult female with life-threatening injuries, who was pronounced deceased at the scene, and two other people involved were injured and taken to a hospital for evaluation, police said. According to a preliminary investigation, two vehicles and the pedestrian were involved, and one driver fled on foot before police arrived.
Context for the initial Östersund collision includes that it was slippery at the location, and the car stopped only after hitting a wall, according to official sources. Reactions at accident scenes involved emergency response and bystander assistance, such as when police arrived in Stockholm to find a crowd had gathered, including several licensed healthcare personnel trying to help the victims, official sources said.