An Oregon emergency room doctor was sentenced to over a year in prison for striking a man with his car and ditching his dying body to clock in at work, according to authorities in reports.
Kenneth Kolarsky, 59, was handed down a 13-month prison sentence by Judge Courtland Geyer on Tuesday in connection with the 2024 death of Nicolas Hernandez-Mendoza, according to the Marion County District Attorney’s Office.
On the evening of Dec. 26, 2024, Kolarsky struck Nicolas Hernandez-Mendoza, 44, as he walked along a crosswalk on the North Pacific Highway in Woodburn, prosecutors said.
The callous doctor stopped his vehicle after colliding with the pedestrian, but simply drove around his unconscious body in the roadway and fled the scene, officials added.
Kolarsky, an emergency physician who makes a living saving lives, was seen in surveillance video walking into work at Silverton Hospital roughly 20 minutes after the hit-and-run, prosecutors added.
Meanwhile, the abandoned pedestrian was transported to Salem Hospital with a fracture to his cervical vertebra and pelvic fractures. He later died in emergency surgery when surgeons could not stop his spleen from bleeding.
Kolarsky was arrested in May 2025 after a “considerable investigation,” the district attorney’s office said.
Hernandez Mendoza had made plans earlier that day to meet his newborn grandson, Emilio, for the first time — but never made it, his daughter, Kimberly Hernandez, told KPTV.
“What hurts the most is he never got to see his grandson because the accident happened a couple of days before they were gonna meet,” Hernandez told the outlet after Kolarsky’s arrest.
A GoFundMe was previously set up to bring his body back to Mexico to be with other members of his family.
“Regardless of why the accident occurred, to leave a scene after striking someone with your vehicle is a callous disregard for human life,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Brendan Murphy said in a statement.
“That’s intolerable, and especially offensive when it is committed by a professional who takes an oath to ‘do no harm’.”
Kolarsky will also serve 36 months of post-prison supervision for the charge of attempted failure to perform the duties of a driver to an injured person.
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