Pedestrian death in Lakeside still under investigation

The death of a pedestrian who was struck by at least one vehicle in Lakeside on Nov. 12 remains under investigation, officials with Montana Highway Patrol said Wednesday.

Authorities pronounced Curtis David Cain, 57, of Lakeside dead at the scene, said Trooper Robert Hensley, who is overseeing the agency’s investigation into the fatal encounter. He said the call came in about 9 p.m., and local emergency responders reached the stricken man before he arrived.

Cain was reportedly struck while walking southbound on U.S. 93 in Lakeside. Hensley said authorities believe Cain had left work at a local restaurant and was headed home on foot.

Early witness accounts offer slightly different versions of the incident, he said. Two vehicles may be involved, the first possibly clipping Cain and leaving him lying on the roadway when a second vehicle passed over him, officials said.

The first vehicle left the scene and video footage of the collision has proven inconclusive as to whether it struck Cain, Hensley said. But it was contact with the second vehicle that led to his death, Hensley said.

The driver that ran over Cain was unimpaired at the time, Hensley said. Investigators are waiting on a toxicology report ordered for Cain to return from the state laboratory.

Hensley said he hoped to track down the motorist behind the wheel of the first vehicle to help piece together what happened, though he acknowledged challenges. That vehicle’s license plate is unreadable in the surveillance footage and investigators have little else to go on at the moment, he said.

Why Cain was in the roadway remains another outstanding question for investigators. Hensley said the area of Lakeside where the collision occurred boasts sidewalks.

Hensley described visibility that evening as poor.

News Editor Derrick Perkins can be reached at 758-4430 or dperkins@dailyinterlake.com.