Blaine residents ask drivers to slow down after deadly hit-and-run
BLAINE, Minn. (KMSP) - 27-year-old man is being charged for driving drunk and killing a Blaine, Minn. man who was getting his mail Thursday night. The crash happened just after 9 p.m. on the 2200 block of 119th Avenue N.E., a road where residents have always been worried about accidents.
Ever since Noy Khomsana and her husband, 39-year-old Danilo Morazan, moved into the quiet neighborhood three weeks ago they were leery of speeders.
“My husband told me, ‘Honey, I think the cars go too fast. There are a lot of kids around here,’ and I said to him, ‘What can they do?’ he said, ‘Maybe a speed bump will slow down traffic,” Khomsana said.
“I told him, ‘Oh, the city’s not going to do it’ and he said, ‘Maybe someone will die and then they’ll do it!” Khomsana said at a rally held in her husband’s honor Friday night.
According to the criminal complaint 27-year-old Adam Joseph Rodman was driving about 70 on 119th Ave. N.E. when struck a car on the road, hit Khomsana’s husband standing at the mailbox, and fled.
Police believe Rodman was intoxicated at the time, but neighbors say speeding is always a major concern on that street.
“The speed limit is 30. I would say people regularly go 40 to 50 mph down this road, especially at night when they can’t see people out on the sidewalk,” Corina Mack, a resident of the neighborhood, told Fox 9.
Mack said she’s been going to Blaine City Council members for more than a decade to request a stop sign or flashing speed sign. Her request fell on deaf ears.
“Ten years ago we said we need a stop sign or someone is going to get killed on this road,” Mack said. Mack was among the neighbors who heard the terror of the crash that took Morazan’s life.
“The speed limit is 30. I would say people regularly go 40-50 mph down this road. Especially at night when they can’t see people out on the sidewalk,” Mack informed.
“I think we feel this didn’t have to happen,” said Rep. Tim Sanders fighting back tears.
Rep. Tim Sanders has long fought for change in the area too. After all he’s seen his fair share of crashes on his own property.
“We actually had in this driveway both of our cars totaled,” Sanders said at the rally Friday night. “It shouldn’t be that way in Blaine. In suburban America you should be able to play in your front yard.”
About a hundred other neighbors came to the rally to comfort Khomsana and the rest of Morzan’s family.
“It takes such a tragedy to really wake people up so now we are awake and we’re definitely going to pursue every option we have,” Sanders said.
Rodman is being charged with three counts of criminal vehicular homicide.
A GoFundMe account has been set up to help support Morzan’s family: gofundme.com/grandvillecares