A 79-year-old man is dead after being struck by a car on Green Street in New Baltimore yesterday morning, police say. Officers responded to reports of a person hit by a car around 10 a.m. and found the man dead in the road, with the road closed for several hours as investigators worked the scene.
According to WXYZ Channel 7, dispatch initially reported the location as the area of 23 Mile Road and Main Street before updating it to near the Pennzoil in the area of Green and Rose streets. That correction matters locally: Green Street is the name M-29 takes as it runs through downtown New Baltimore, a state highway corridor that, according to the City of New Baltimore's thoroughfare plan, carries the bulk of cross-town traffic despite its limited right-of-way.
The driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators, the station's report notes. Emergency crews secured the area while the fire department responded, and witnesses were interviewed as police continued piecing together how the crash unfolded.
Multiple Agencies Assisted at the Scene
The Macomb County Sheriff's Office assisted New Baltimore police at the scene, per the same account, along with the medical examiner's office. Police say they are continuing to investigate the incident, and open questions remain about the man's identity, whether he was crossing in a marked crosswalk or midblock, and how fast the vehicle involved was traveling.
The driver staying put is a legally significant detail in Michigan, where leaving the scene of a fatal crash is a felony. It also echoes a fatal pedestrian collision in Roseville on Little Mack Avenue in November 2025, in which Hoodline reported the driver also remained and cooperated with investigators.
A Highway With a History of Deadly Crashes
Green Street's designation as M-29 places it under Michigan Department of Transportation jurisdiction, and the corridor recently underwent a $3.2 million resurfacing and safety upgrade. That project, which included new pedestrian traffic signals and sidewalk curb ramps along 3.2 miles of the highway through New Baltimore and Chesterfield Township, launched in July 2025, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation.
This is not the only recent fatal crash along the corridor. In November 2025, a 31-year-old driver was killed after her vehicle ran off M-29 near Ruedisale Street in New Baltimore and struck several parked boats, as reported by CBS News Detroit. A regional analysis by the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments has found that pedestrian collisions on state-owned highways in Macomb County are significantly more likely to result in fatal or severe injuries than crashes on locally owned municipal streets.
Michigan's Pedestrian Fatality Numbers
Statewide, motor vehicle crashes killed 156 pedestrians and injured 1,809 others across 2,131 collisions in 2024, accounting for 15 percent of all traffic deaths that year, according to Michigan Traffic Crash Facts. The Macomb County Sheriff's Office has separately cited state data showing more than 96 percent of Michigan pedestrian fatalities happen in dark or low-light conditions, with 77 percent occurring at midblock locations outside marked crosswalks — though yesterday's crash happened around 10 a.m., in daylight.
Under Michigan law, pedestrians are required to walk on sidewalks where they exist, and drivers must yield to pedestrians lawfully in an intersection or adjacent marked crosswalk. Whether either statute applies to Sunday's crash has not been determined, and police have not said whether the man was in a crosswalk when he was struck. The investigation remains active, and no further details about the victim's identity have been released.
