Eight years after Air Force veteran Kell Palletti was struck and killed while riding his bicycle home from work on Westport Road in Louisville, the driver who hit him and drove away has never been identified. Palletti was 32 when he died in the early morning hours of August 30, 2018, and his sister, Kerith Palletti, says the not knowing has never gotten easier.
Palletti was riding his bike on Westport Road on August 30, 2018, when he was hit and killed, according to WAVE News. The Jefferson County Coroner's Office determined that Palletti died from blunt force trauma after being struck around 4 a.m. between Westport Middle School and Ormsby Lane, according to WDRB. Louisville Metro Police have said the person responsible stopped not to check on Palletti, but to remove his crushed bicycle from the truck's bumper.
Kerith Palletti says her brother never saw it coming and had no time to be scared or hurt. She remains grateful to a bystander who stopped to help Kell that night, even as the driver kept going. Police believe the driver stopped about one mile from the crash scene to dislodge bicycle debris before continuing on, and bicycle pieces were later found on Lyndon Lane, per the station's earlier report.
A Truck With a Damaged Headlight and a White Topper
The suspect vehicle was described by investigators as a late 1990s to mid-2000s regular-cab Chevy or GMC pickup truck, featuring silver running boards, a white mid-rise topper with side windows, a working parking light, and a damaged driver-side headlight. Louisville Metro Police released an image of the vehicle believed to be involved back in 2018, hoping the distinctive details would jog someone's memory. Police say individuals with information about the collision have not come forward, and the investigation remains open and active.
Palletti's death came within 48 hours of another fatal bicyclist hit-and-run in the city — 23-year-old Austin Melvin was struck and killed by a fleeing U-Haul truck on Preston Highway on August 28, 2018, the same WDRB report notes. The back-to-back tragedies that late-summer week prompted police to preach bike safety.
A Sister's Yearly Pilgrimage and a Stolen Memorial
Kerith Palletti travels from Ohio to the crash site every year to honor her brother, who would have turned 40 this past March. She placed a ghost bike — a white bicycle serving as a roadside memorial — at the site, only for it to be stolen in 2025. Ghost bike memorials trace back to St. Louis, Missouri, in October 2003, when the first white-painted bicycle was placed at a crash site; the tradition has since grown into a global movement with more than 600 memorials across over 210 locations, according to Wikipedia.
Kerith says not knowing who was responsible continues to take a mental, physical and emotional toll on her. She says she would like to meet the person responsible one day, to determine whether the collision was an accident and whether they are sorry. She has said she is willing to forgive the person responsible if they are truly sorry, but insists that her brother deserves to have that person identified.
Westport Road's Ongoing Danger and a Statewide Pattern
Westport Road has continued to see severe crashes in the years since Kell's death. In September 2025, a fatal hit-and-run at a Westport Road intersection left one person dead and another injured while LMPD searched for the driver who fled, according to WHAS11. Vision Zero Louisville's 2024 High Injury Network analysis found that 55% of all fatal and serious-injury crashes in Jefferson County are concentrated on just 53 roadway corridors spanning 152 miles — roughly 5% of the city's non-interstate streets — according to ThatCarHitMe.com. Louisville Metro Government describes its High Injury Network as a data-driven list of corridors where a majority of the city's fatal and suspected serious-injury crashes occur. The same data shows pedestrians and bicyclists made up 34% of fatal traffic crashes on non-interstate roads in the county between 2018 and 2022. According to Louisville Metro Government's transportation-safety data, 4% of all fatal crashes involved a bicyclist, while 36% of all serious-injury crashes involved a pedestrian, bicyclist or motorcyclist.
Louisville Metro Government's Westport Road Corridor Study examined 6.1 miles of KY 1447 between Hubbards Lane and Chamberlain Lane.
Cases like Kell Palletti's are not unusual to remain unsolved for years. Historical data on Louisville Metro Police Department Traffic Unit investigations shows that roughly half of all fatal hit-and-run cases in the city since 2014 remain unsolved, with the increasing passage of time and the loss of useful tips contributing to the difficulty, per WDRB's reporting on the department's records. Leaving the scene of a crash that results in death or injury is a Class D felony under Kentucky Revised Statute 189.580, punishable by one to five years in prison and fines up to $10,000, according to Hoffman Walker & Knauf.
Police Say Someone Out There Knows
LMPD has said someone knows what happened that morning on Westport Road, and that the passage of time has not eased the Palletti family's pain or answered their questions. Detectives with the department's Traffic Unit, based out of its Goose Creek Road facility, are asking anyone with information to come forward, according to the Louisville Metro Police Department. Tips can be submitted anonymously through the 502-574-LMPD hotline or the department's online crime tip portal.
For Kerith Palletti, the search is no longer just about a criminal case. It is about her brother finally getting the answer he deserves, and about her own ability to move forward after eight years of driving back to the same stretch of road every year, standing where he fell, and waiting for someone to finally speak up.
