Las Vegas woman’s death belatedly attributed to auto accident
A 77-year-old woman’s death in March has been attributed to a crash that sent her to the hospital.
Las Vegas police weren’t considering Marie Hodge’s death as related to the March 5 crash until the Clark County coroner’s office investigated her cause and manner of death. On Wednesday, the coroner’s office determined she died partly as a result of the crash, police said in a release.
Hodge, a Las Vegas resident, died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with multiple blunt force injuries and pulmonary hypertension also significant factors in her death, the coroner’s office said. Her death was ruled an accident.
The crash happened in the evening on private property at 5681 Boulder Highway, near Tropicana Avenue, police said. Hodge’s 2010 Ford Fusion hit an unoccupied 2010 Chevrolet Express cargo van, continued over a curb and “came to rest against a tree,” a Metropolitan Police Department release said.
She was taken to St. Rose Dominican Hospital’s San Martin campus with what were originally thought to be survivable injuries. Hodge died about a week later on March 12, the coroner’s office said.
Her death is the 129th traffic fatality investigated by Metro this year.
Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.
