Fatal collision leaves questions

BEMIDJI – A fatal car-pedestrian collision remains under investigation as Beltrami County sheriff’s deputies reconstruct the incident.
Tyler Blake Cummings, 21, died early Saturday after a car struck him near Balsam Road on Irvine Avenue Northwest in Northern Township.
Sheriff Phil Hodapp said Cummings had been lying in the roadway when he was struck by a car driven by 19-year-old Samantha Ruth Pender of Bemidji.
Investigators are tracking down details and waiting for autopsy results, particularly whether Cummings had alcohol in his system, Hodapp said Monday.
Cummings had a car parked north of Bemidji, and may have laid down in the road at some point, the sheriff said.
Investigators are reconstructing a timeline, and have ruled out Cummings being struck by another vehicle.
Pender, the driver of the car that struck Cummings, does not face charges.
“She has been cooperative,” said Hodapp, noting Pender and the occupants in her car stopped and provided aid to Cummings. “She did what she was supposed to do.”