Irene Douglas died Monday, 22 days after she fell off the back of a motorcycle in Auburn.

She was 36 years old.

In high school in Portland, Irene was a star athlete. A runner, she received an award from Joan Benoit-Samuelson for her achievement in the sport.

She was married to James Douglas and had four children. She had three siblings, a sister and two brothers.

She should not be dead, but she is.

On July 22, Irene climbed on the back of John Ferland’s 2004 Harley-Davidson. She was not wearing a helmet.

As the two, along with Scott Soulard of Old Orchard Beach, traveled along Fairview Avenue in Auburn, Douglas fell off the back of Ferland’s bike and suffered massive injuries.

Ferland, who lives in Auburn, and Soulard drove away and left Douglas bleeding on the street. A woman who heard the motorcycles and who does not want to be identified, hurried from her apartment and pulled Douglas out of the road.

Douglas carried no identification, so she was taken to Central Maine Medical Center as a Jane Doe. She was identified by her family the next day after her photo, taken while she lay unconscious in her hospital bed, appeared in the Sun Journal.

Ferland and Soulard were charged with leaving the scene of an accident involving serious bodily injury, a Class C crime, the day after the accident.

Douglas is dead and a Class C charge of leaving the scene of an accident is simply not adequate.

There is no question that Douglas was seriously injured after she fell from the bike. She couldn’t move and couldn’t talk and there is no way anyone looking at her, even briefly, could have missed that.

Ferland and Soulard had an obligation – at an absolute minimum – to call for help. They didn’t do that.

They should have stayed to wait for police to arrive. They didn’t do that either.

To their credit, they did turn themselves in once they learned Douglas was hospitalized.

We’re not suggesting Ferland and Soulard set out to injure Douglas. There’s no evidence of that. But they did – by their own admission – leave her there to die. This situation demands serious charges that reflect their criminal indifference.