The driver who struck student Regan Belue on a crosswalk Nov. 9 is being charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian and careless and prohibited driving.
According to the Conway Police Department report about the Nov. 9 accident, Natalie Hocut, 20, was “not distracted,” her vision was obscured by rain and she was not speeding.
Hocut told police “that she was turning left on a green light. When she saw the pedestrian she slammed on her brakes but slid into the pedestrian due to the wet asphalt,” according to the report.
The officer on the scene, Jeremy Perkins, wrote in the crash report narrative that Hocut “was at fault for failing to yield to a pedestrian at a crosswalk.”
Perkins did not give the driver a citation on the scene.
Conway Police’s Public Information Officer Matthew Boyd said, “Officers are given a certain amount of discretion when deciding whether to issue a citation when working an accident. Depending on the circumstances, there are a variety of factors that can influence an officer when making their decision.”
“In this investigation, there was more information to be gathered before a decision was made about what charges would apply to the situation, and the officer is following up on charges through the court system.”
Conway City Attorney Charles Finkenbender said Nov. 21, “My office has authorized and approved the submission of charges to the district court against the driver for failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk and careless and prohibited driving.
“The way the process works is a submission by my office for charges is a request. It has to be reviewed by a judge and the judge would decide whether or not the charges could go forward,” he said.
“In this case, the Conway Police Department and the UCA Police Department did an excellent job in gathering up all the evidence that would be needed by a judge,” Finkenbender said.
The day before striking Belue, Hocut received a citation from the Clinton Police Department for going 69 mph in a 45 mph zone on U.S. Route 65.
At around 2 a.m. on Nov. 8, Clinton Police Detective Tim Baker was using a radar and pulled her over for speeding, for which she has a court appearance scheduled in December.