This story has been updated with additional information.
A homeless man walking on Egan Drive was critically injured in a hit-and-run collision with a vehicle in an outbound lane near the old Breakwater Inn at about 2:25 a.m. Sunday, according to officials and family members.
A few hours later a man told police he was involved in the crash, but officials declined to state if he was a driver or passenger in the car, or a witness, according to an information release issued early Monday afternoon by the Juneau Police Department.
“At approximately 6:55 AM, a 23-year-old male came into the Juneau Police Department and requested to speak with detectives about his involvement in the crash,” the release states. “The vehicle believed to be involved in the collision with the pedestrian was later located at a residence in the 8600 block of Dudley Street. The vehicle is described as a silver 1999 Pontiac Trans AM. The vehicle sustained significant damages to the front passenger side corner panel and windshield.”
The case remains under investigation with no arrests yet, according to the release.
The outbound lane of Egan Drive was closed for several hours, with traffic rerouted onto Glacier Highway, while the victim was transported to Bartlett Regional Hospital and police conducted an investigation at the scene, according to JPD.
The victim was identified as Michael Swanson, 38, by his cousin Jenifer Johnston, in an interview Sunday. She said he was born in Sitka and lived in Juneau for many years — going unhoused for a long period of time — and apparently had just returned to town after living in Hawaii for the past five years. She said she saw him walking along a roadside Saturday while driving past, but she was unable to stop and family members living here had no way to contact him.
“Nobody’s heard from him for like a couple of years,” she said.
Brittany Honsinger said her husband, Matthew Buness, was the first person to stop at the scene to provide assistance, with the victim laying in one lane of the road while traffic continued to drive past in the other.
“My husband’s trained so that he kind of knew some of the injuries he was having,” she said. “And so he didn’t perform CPR or anything, because of the extensive injuries that would have hurt him more.”
Johnston said Swanson was medivaced to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with a broken neck and numerous other critical injuries. The JPD release on Monday stated he is in critical condition.
Homelessness in Juneau has been a prominent issue during the past year due to reports of illegal activity last year at a city-run campground resulting in the Juneau Assembly approving a “dispersed camping” policy this year, meaning there is no officially approved camping site. Also, city officials have been evaluating stricter policies toward people camping in public spaces following a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding a ban on sleeping outdoors passed by a city in Oregon.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
