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SALT LAKE CITY — A woman who was critically injured when she was hit in a Salt Lake crosswalk on June 21 died about five days later, officials said.
Alexandra Ragsdale Davies, 34, was hit by a car just before 8 a.m. while walking across 2100 South at 945 East in a marked crosswalk that does not have any traffic lights or signals, Salt Lake City police detective Michael Ruff and Sgt. Brandon Shearer said.
She was transported to a hospital where she remained until she died Wednesday morning, Shearer said.
Ragsdale Davies and her boyfriend, Adam Paul Steed, had attended a special event in Salt Lake City on June 20 and were staying with Steed's parents when she decided to run across the street and grab a cup of coffee from Smith's the next morning, Steed told KSL.com.
When she had been gone a while, Steed stepped outside to look for her and saw several police cars lining the street. When police told him what had happened, he assumed her injuries wouldn't be worse than a broken leg, he said.
"I had no idea," he added. "She had flown 60 feet."
Steed and Ragsdale Davies first met on an airplane when Steed noticed the 34-year-old lying in the aisle during a 12-hour flight from Paris to Los Angeles, he said.
"Who lays on the floor in an airplane?" he laughed. "It's something I always wanted to do when I get tired, and I just had to talk to her."
They talked for eight hours and soon struck up a relationship, he said.
Ragsdale Davies was originally from Sweden but commuted between Europe and Los Angeles, California, for her work as a model, Steed told KSL.com. She moved to Utah about four months ago to be with Steed and his children in Utah County.
"She's a strong, independent woman," he added. "She was fiercely loyal to me as a companion. ... She had dedicated the whole time we were dating ... to helping my two little children who I've raised as a single parent."
Ragsdale Davies' mother, Gitta Ragsdale, told KSL.com her daughter was "a real problem solver, full of life" and liked to travel and help others.
She was also supportive of Steed's work with refugees, he said, and her dream was to help women in abusive relationships.
"She was so selfless and wickedly smart and witty," he said. "Alexandra loved nature, traditions and good cooking. But most of all, I admired her fierce dedication to the kids and me, and the values she believed in. She was loved, and she will be greatly missed."
