Driver speeding in reverse fatally hits retired nurse outside Faribault hospital

A motorist ran over and killed a retired nurse while rapidly backing out of a parking spot outside a hospital south of the Twin Cities, authorities said.

The incident occurred about 1:25 p.m. Monday outside District One Hospital on State Avenue in Faribault, according to police.

Darlene N. Ulrich, 83, of Faribault, was taken to the hospital and then to North Memorial Medical Center, where she died, police said.

Ulrich retired after 44 years as a licensed practical nurse at the Faribault Clinic, not far from where was hit, said her daughter, Peggy Minarcik.

Minarcik said her mother had a doctor's appointment and was walking back to her car when she was struck.

Ulrich began her tenure at the clinic handling secretarial duties, along with directing patients to examination rooms and taking their temperature, Minarcik said.

The doctor she first worked for "saw how good she was" and suggested she consider becoming a nurse.

The online obituary for the grandmother of six notes that "her loving and compassionate nature led her to be an organ donor upon her death."

The car's driver was identified by police as Lana Good, 73, of Faribault. Her late husband, Roy Good, was a doctor at the same clinic where Ulrich worked, Minarcik said.

According to police:

Good first hit Ulrich "at a high rate of speed" while driving her car in reverse and then struck another vehicle.

Good, her passenger, and the other vehicle's driver all escaped injury.

"The [police] department will work diligently to determine all the factors that contributed to [Ulrich's] death," said Police Chief Andy Bohlen, who noted that alcohol did not play a role in Good's actions.