photo by: Crash report/Lawrence Police Department

This diagram shows the path of a truck that struck a pedestrian and her service dog in the crosswalk at Lawrence Avenue and Clinton Parkway on July 29, 2020. The pedestrian later died from her injuries.

A driver told Lawrence police that he didn’t see a blind woman and her service dog crossing through an intersection until he struck them, according to a crash report.

The woman died from her injuries several days later.

Tamara Lucille Kearney, 61, of Lawrence, was walking northbound across Clinton Parkway in the eastern crosswalk at Lawrence Avenue with her service dog, Rex, at 10:12 a.m. July 29, according to the Lawrence Police Department’s crash report.

Jeremy Todd Bain, 42, of Greenwood, Mo., was driving his work truck, a Chevrolet Silverado, southbound on Lawrence Avenue. He attempted to turn left to head east on Clinton Parkway when he thought he had an opportunity to do so, and he didn’t see Kearney and Rex until he struck them, he reportedly told police.

Officers arrived to find bystanders attending to Kearney, who had a large laceration on her head, Officer Nathaniel Haig wrote in the narrative of the crash report. Bain had immediately stopped and rendered aid to Kearney, the report states.

Traffic camera footage showed that Bain’s truck struck Rex, then Kearney, Haig wrote. Lawrence police previously told the Journal-World that Rex suffered only minor injuries and was fine.

Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical personnel assisted Kearney and took her by ground ambulance to a helicopter, according to the report. The Lifestar air ambulance took Kearney to Stormont Vail Health in Topeka. She died from her injuries on Aug. 8.

Haig indicated through a numeric code in the report that he believed a cellphone may have been a distraction to the driver, but he did not elaborate on that opinion elsewhere or in the crash narrative. The report indicates that Bain was not given any citations. However, Dorothy Kliem, trial assistant for the Douglas County district attorney’s office, said Tuesday that the case is under review.

Kearney was a 1976 graduate of Lawrence High School and graduate of the Challenger Institute of Technology in Fremantle, Western Australia, according to her obituary in the Lawrence Journal-World. She was a yoga instructor for Lawrence Parks and Recreation and a Braille proofreader, and she also ran her own business as a clinical massage therapist, the obituary states.

“Tamara met every challenge in this life with grace, good humor and courage,” the obituary said. “She never once let her blindness define or limit her but rather used it to enlarge and improve the lives of all she came in contact with.”

She is survived by her husband, three children, five grandchildren and other relatives, according to the obituary, and Rex was “her faithful companion and guide for eight years.”

Bain was not injured and did not require medical treatment, the report states. He was wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash, and he did not show any signs of impairment, according to the report.

Related coverage

• Aug. 9, 2020: Pedestrian dies from injuries after being struck by vehicle at Clinton Parkway and Lawrence Avenue

• July 31, 2020: Pedestrian hit by car in Lawrence suffers possibly life-threatening injuries