ER doctor imprisoned for hitting a pedestrian then driving around dying victim to go to work

ER doctor Kenneth Kolarsky will serve 13 months in prison and receive three years of supervised release after driving away from a man he fatally struck with his car on his way to work in December 2024 - (Google Images)

An Oregon emergency room doctor will spend more than a year in prison after prosecutors say he hit a pedestrian, drove around the man’s body and then kept going to work instead of stopping to help.

Kenneth Kolarsky, 59, was sentenced Tuesday to 13 months behind bars and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to attempted failure to perform the duties of a driver to an injured person.

Investigators say that on December 26, 2024, Kolarsky struck Nicolas Hernandez-Mendoza as he was crossing North Pacific Highway near Williams Avenue in Woodburn. Hernandez-Mendoza had activated a pedestrian crosswalk safety system that was meant to alert drivers that someone was in the road before the crash, authorities said.

After the impact, Kolarsky stopped his vehicle briefly, then drove around Hernandez-Mendoza’s unconscious body and left the scene without calling for help or waiting for emergency responders, prosecutors claimed.

Emergency crews later found Hernandez-Mendoza lying in the road. He was rushed to a hospital in Salem for emergency surgery, but did not survive. Hernandez-Mendoza suffered devastating injuries, including a fractured neck vertebra and a broken pelvis and internal bleeding from a ruptured spleen could not be stopped, doctors found.

About 20 minutes after the crash, investigators say Kolarsky showed up for work at Legacy Silverton Medical Center, where he was employed as an ER doctor through Northwest Acute Care Specialists. That detail, prosecutors said, became a key part of piecing together what happened that morning.

“Regardless of why the accident occurred, to leave a scene after striking someone with your vehicle is a callous disregard for human life,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Brendan Murphy said in court, KGW reports. “That’s intolerable, and especially offensive when it is committed by a professional who takes an oath to ‘do no harm.’”

Kolarsky was arrested by Woodburn police on May 17, 2025. Prosecutors said the charges were limited to hit-and-run-related offenses because investigators did not find enough evidence to criminally charge him for causing the crash itself.

At sentencing, Judge Courtland Geyer also condemned Kolarsky’s actions, saying he left “a community member fallen and in the dark” and acted with an “absence of dignity.”

Legacy Silverton Medical Center, which contracts with Northwest Acute Care Specialists to staff its emergency department, previously said Kolarsky was placed on administrative leave after the crash while the investigation continued, according to KGW.

The Independent has contacted Legacy Silverton Medical Center and Northwest Acute Care Specialists for comment.