Woman pedestrian hit, killed in Minneapolis

A 55-year-old woman was hit by a car Friday night as she crossed a dark street in Minneapolis at the border with Brooklyn Center. Alberta M. Geist died shortly after at North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, police said Saturday.

The driver, an 18-year-old woman, was driving northwest on Osseo Road about 9:45 p.m. when Geist ran across N. 49th Avenue, said John Elder, a Minneapolis police spokesman.

The Hennepin County medical examiner said Geist, of 5135 Vincent Av. N., Brooklyn Center, died of multiple blunt force injuries.

The driver's car was moving at or near the posted speed limit and she didn't see the victim, who was wearing a dark red coat, Elder said. The victim lived only a couple of blocks from where she was hit.

The driver continued for another 110 feet as she and her 20-year-old passenger, her sister, wondered if they had hit someone or something, Elder said.

He said good Samaritans at the scene tried to help the victim and placed her belongings, including purse and keys, on the side of the road, where they had moved her — not realizing that people should never move an injured person, he said. They also tended to the distraught driver, whose name has not been released.

A pedestrian also was killed Friday night in Itasca County.

That man was trying to cross Hwy. 46 near his Squaw Lake home, the Minnesota State Patrol said.

Keith J. Rogers, 33, was crossing the highway at mile post 27 when he was struck by a car driven by Carl T. Fugleberg, 57, of Byron, the patrol said. Fugleberg was southbound on Hwy. 46 when the accident happened at 8:17 p.m. Rogers died at the scene.

Joy Powell • 612-673-7750