A dog was killed and a 43-year-old man was left with life-threatening injuries after a car struck them while they were crossing North Buffalo Drive in northwest Las Vegas on Sunday evening. The man was walking his dog near Cobal Canyon Lane, just north of West Craig Road, when a 2015 Hyundai Santa Fe hit them both.
According to 8 News Now, the collision happened shortly after 6:45 p.m. Sunday, with police saying a 23-year-old woman was driving the Hyundai south on Buffalo Drive when the man and his dog were crossing the road outside a marked or implied crosswalk. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that the pedestrian was taken to University Medical Center’s trauma center with life-threatening injuries.
The front of the Hyundai struck both the man and the dog, projecting them onto the roadway, the station’s report states. Medical personnel pronounced the dog dead at the scene, while hospital staff determined the man’s injuries were life-threatening.
Driver Cooperated, Showed No Signs of Impairment
The woman behind the wheel remained at the scene after the crash. Per the same account, she showed no signs of impairment and cooperated with investigators as they worked to piece together what happened. The crash remains under investigation by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
The circumstances that led the man and his dog into the roadway outside a crosswalk, along with any other contributing factors, have not been detailed publicly as the investigation continues.
A Deadly Year for Pedestrians on Valley Streets
Sunday’s crash adds to a grim tally for pedestrians across the Las Vegas Valley this year. More than 200 pedestrian-related crashes have occurred within LVMPD’s jurisdiction in 2026, and 17 of those proved fatal, according to KTNV. The department has called lowering pedestrian and other traffic deaths a priority for 2026 and has assigned a dedicated squad to patrol nightly in areas identified as high risk.
LVMPD has pointed to speeding and failure to yield as driver behaviors that continue to factor into many of these crashes, KTNV reported. So far this year, the department’s jurisdiction has logged 35 fatal crashes overall, a decline from the same point in 2025.
Statewide Numbers Show a Mixed Picture
Zooming out, Nevada’s broader traffic safety trends for 2026 show improvement on paper even as individual tragedies like Sunday’s continue. The state recorded 230 traffic fatalities from January through August, an 11.88% drop from the 261 fatalities logged over the same stretch in 2025, according to a Nevada Department of Public Safety Office of Traffic Safety report dated Sept. 8 and cited by FOX5 Vegas.
Statewide fatal crashes fell 11.02% over the same period, from 245 to 218, the report found. Clark County saw an even steeper decline, with traffic fatalities dropping 24.85% from 169 to 127 compared to the same months in 2025. Pedestrian fatalities statewide dipped slightly as well, down 3.08% from 65 to 63, though the toll remains substantial heading into the fall.
