Portland doctor who drove around dying pedestrian and went to work sentenced to 13 months

A Portland doctor was sentenced to prison on Tuesday in connection with a fatal hit-and-run in December 2023.

A Marion County court sentenced Kenneth Kolarsky, 59, to 13 months in prison and three years of post-release supervision after he pleaded guilty to attempted failure to perform driver duties to an injured person.

Kolarsky struck Nicolas Hernandez-Mendoza while driving to work on December 26th, when he was crossing North Pacific Highway at Williams Avenue in Woodburn. Before he was hit, Hernandez-Mendoza activated the crossing safety lights, which notify drivers of pedestrians on the street.

Kolarsky pulled over after striking Hernandez-Mendoza, drove around his unconscious body, and then fled the scene, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Officers discovered Hernandez-Mendoza on the road. He was brought to a Salem hospital and died during emergency surgery. He sustained a shattered cervical vertebra and a damaged pelvis. Surgeons were unable to stop the internal bleeding of his spleen.

Investigators discovered that Kolarsky entered Legacy Silverton Medical Center Hospital, where he worked as an emergency department physician for Northwest Acute Care Specialists, just 20 minutes after striking Hernandez-Mendoza.

“Regardless of why the accident happened, leaving the scene after hitting someone with your car is a callous disregard for human life,” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Brendan Murphy. “That’s intolerable and especially offensive when it is committed by a professional who takes an oath to ‘do no harm.'”

Woodburn police detained Kolarsky on May 17, 2025. The prosecutor’s office stated that accusations were restricted to the hit-and-run since there was “insufficient evidence” to decide if the accident itself was unlawful.

According to the prosecutor’s office, Judge Courtland Geyer stated at the sentence hearing that Kolarsky left “a community member fallen and in the dark” and acted with an “absence of dignity.”

Legacy Silverton Medical Center uses NACS to staff its emergency departments. At the time of the crash, the president of NACS stated that Kolarsky had been placed on administrative leave pending the result of the investigation.