A 30-year-old Milwaukee woman will spend three years in prison followed by three years of extended supervision for striking and killing a 66-year-old pedestrian in a marked crosswalk, then driving away without stopping to help. Tameca Martin was sentenced this week for the March 9, 2026 crash that killed Calvin Young Jr. at South 54th Street and West National Avenue in West Milwaukee.
According to CBS 58, Martin's sentence followed a conviction connected to the fatal collision, and the terms of her post-release supervision were laid out as part of the court's decision. The outlet also clarified that Young was struck while walking inside a marked crosswalk. Under Wisconsin Statute § 346.74(5)(d), leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death is classified as a Class D felony, carrying a maximum of up to 25 years in state prison and fines as high as $100,000, according to a statute summary published by Grieve Law. Martin's three-year prison term falls well below that ceiling.
A criminal complaint detailed by the same CBS 58 report described a gruesome scene: Young was thrown approximately 108 feet upon impact. FOX6 Milwaukee reported that surveillance video showed Martin's vehicle pausing briefly at the scene before fleeing without anyone checking on him. FOX6's report paints a picture of a driver who had at least a moment to register what happened and chose to keep going instead of rendering aid.
Court Records Reveal Unlicensed Driver, Six Children in SUV
Court records reported by FOX6 Milwaukee show that at the time of the crash, Martin, who did not have a valid driver's license, was behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Equinox carrying six children 12 years old or younger, with only one of them properly secured in a car seat. Police statements cited in the same report indicate Martin admitted to officers after being detained that she did not hold a valid driver's license, that she had been distracted by her GPS, that she suffers from poor vision, and that she had consumed marijuana roughly two hours before getting behind the wheel, as detailed by FOX6 Milwaukee.
The combination of factors described in that reporting — no license, impaired vision, cannabis use, and a vehicle full of young children with inadequate restraints — paints a stark picture of the conditions surrounding the fatal crash.
A Known Danger Zone Along National Avenue
The intersection where Young died has a documented history of safety concerns. Municipal planning records previously cited by earlier Hoodline reporting show that South 54th Street and West National Avenue had already been flagged by local officials as needing pedestrian safety upgrades, including bike lanes and curb bump-outs, before Young's death. The crash renewed scrutiny on a corridor that planners had already identified as a hazard.
That local flashpoint sits inside a much larger regional pattern. An analysis by pedestrian advocacy organization MilWALKee Walks found that hit-and-run drivers were involved in 57% of Milwaukee County pedestrian fatalities in 2024, more than double the 25% national average. A separate citywide crash analysis from the City of Milwaukee found that roughly 32% of all traffic collisions in the city result in hit-and-runs, double the 16% rate recorded in Madison.
Citywide Traffic Deaths Fall Even as Hit-and-Runs Persist
The sentencing arrives amid broader, somewhat contradictory trends in Milwaukee traffic safety. City performance data reported by Urban Milwaukee showed traffic fatalities citywide fell 19% to 57 in 2025, a 26% drop from a peak of 77 deaths in 2022, following the city's adoption of Vision Zero safety initiatives. Those gains stand in contrast to a longer-term trend documented by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, which found that traffic crash fatalities in Milwaukee County rose 69.9% between 2010–2012 and 2020–2022, even as combined traffic deaths across Wisconsin's other 71 counties fell by 5.7% over the same period.
Young's death is one entry in a string of similar cases Hoodline has tracked across Milwaukee neighborhoods this year, including a reopened cold case tied to another fatal hit-and-run along West National Avenue and a separate crash near 22nd and Auer that left a pedestrian critically injured. Taken together, the cases illustrate how citywide progress on traffic deaths has not erased the specific danger drivers who flee the scene continue to pose to people on foot.
