Man Killed Crossing Preston Highway Adds to Louisville's Deadliest Road Corridor

A man crossing Preston Highway was struck by an SUV Thursday night and later died at UofL Hospital, according to the Louisville Metro Police Department. Officers responded to the 7200 block of the highway for a vehicle collision involving a pedestrian, and found the area was not well lit at the time of the crash.

According to WAVE News, the SUV was traveling southbound on Preston Highway when it struck the man as he crossed from east to west outside a marked crosswalk, based on the initial investigation. He was taken to UofL Hospital, where he was declared dead. The driver stayed at the scene and is cooperating with investigators, and LMPD said it does not expect to file charges at this time. The investigation remains ongoing.

A Road With a Documented History of Danger

The stretch of Preston Highway where the man died sits within a corridor that Louisville Metro Government designated part of its High Injury Network, a set of roads carrying an outsized share of the city's traffic deaths. A 2025 planning study from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet found that a 7-mile section of Preston Highway, also known as KY 61, between Commerce Crossings Drive and Briden Avenue recorded 2,298 total crashes and 22 fatalities from 2019 through 2023, including 42 crashes involving pedestrians.

Louisville Metro Government finalized a Preston Corridor Plan in 2023 specifically to reduce severe crashes along the route after city planners tallied 13 fatalities and 33 serious injuries on the highway between 2021 and early 2023, per the city's own transportation planning documents. The city separately spends about $2 million annually on citywide sidewalk repairs, according to Louisville Metro Government; that funding is not identified as specific to Preston Highway. The crash occurred in an area that was not well lit.

Legal Standard for Mid-Block Crossings

Under Kentucky Revised Statute § 189.570(6)(a), a pedestrian who crosses a roadway somewhere other than a marked or unmarked crosswalk at an intersection is legally required to yield the right-of-way to vehicles, according to Justia Law. Investigators continue to review the circumstances even when no charges are immediately filed.

Part of a Citywide Pattern

Pedestrian deaths across Metro Louisville have been climbing, with 44 recorded in 2024 compared to 33 the year before, according to Vision Zero Louisville dashboard data cited by Kaufman & Stigger, PLLC. Louisville's annual pedestrian fatalities had averaged around 35 a year in recent years before that spike. Jefferson County as a whole led Kentucky in both total crashes and road deaths in 2024, recording 25,417 collisions and 113 fatalities, roughly 16% of all fatal crashes statewide, per ThatCarHitMe.com.

Louisville's High Injury Network, mapped by Vision Zero Louisville using Kentucky State Police crash data, covers 5% of the city's non-interstate roads yet accounts for 55% of all non-interstate fatal and serious injury collisions, according to Louisville Metro Government. The network also includes state-owned roadways managed by KYTC. Nearly 75% of Louisville's traffic fatalities happen on surface streets rather than interstates. Hoodline also detailed after a Dixie Highway hit-and-run earlier this month. Nationally, drivers struck and killed 7,148 pedestrians in 2024, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.