A pair of Sangamon County vehicle-pedestrian accidents Monday evening left a 38-year-old Riverton woman dead and a 58-year-old Berlin man hospitalized in critical condition.

Michele J. Everhart, 38, was killed instantly when she apparently jumped or ran in front of a car on Old Route 36 in Riverton shortly before 8 p.m., according to Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Barb Freesen.

Everhart had recently moved to Riverton, authorities said.

There is little lighting at the site of the incident, and authorities were unsure why the woman was in the roadway.

A Riverton couple told police the 79-year-old husband was driving east in a Ford Focus when what they initially thought was a deer appeared in front of them at the Fourth Street intersection. There was no way for him to avoid the collision, which caused the victim to be thrown up over the hood of the car, shattering the driver’s side windshield, Freesen said.

It appeared the woman approached from the westbound lane.

Authorities went to Riverton Middle School afterward to talk with a Lincoln man who had been in a romantic relationship with the victim. State police also indicated she had at least one child.

It wasn’t immediately known if the woman was under the influence of alcohol or any other intoxicating substance, Freesen added.

Meanwhile, Sangamon County sheriff’s Capt. Jack Campbell said alcohol appeared to be a factor in an accident that badly injured Gary Sheppard about 4:10 p.m. in the 400 block of South Washington Street in Berlin.

Witnesses told deputies Sheppard had been drinking throughout the afternoon before a woman came to pick him up at a friend’s house and take him home.

Sheppard refused, prompting the woman to get back into the 2003 Pontiac Sunfire.

As she looked over her shoulder in the other direction and started to back out of the driveway, deputies said, Sheppard approached the driver’s side door. The car then swung around, striking Sheppard and running him over.

He suffered injuries including a skull fracture and a broken leg and remained in the trauma unit at St. John’s Hospital late Monday.

No citations were immediately issued as deputies continued to investigate.