An 80-year-old man is dead after a vehicle struck him at high speed and sped off, leaving Los Angeles police searching for a driver who remains at large. The crash happened Friday night at 726 W. Imperial Highway, where paramedics and police officers responded but could not save the victim, who was crossing the street when he was hit.
The Los Angeles Police Department reported the fatal hit-and-run in East Los Angeles was under investigation as of Saturday, according to MyNewsLA.com. Investigators blocked off the street and began searching the surrounding area for evidence pointing to the driver, who fled the scene without stopping, police said. The suspect's vehicle and identity have not been released, and no arrest has been announced.
A Pattern of Deadly Hit-and-Runs Across South LA
This is not the first time this year that Los Angeles police have been left chasing a driver who refused to stop after striking a pedestrian. In April, LAPD searched for a driver who fled after striking and killing a pedestrian in Vermont Knolls, a man in his 50s who was found dead in the street near Manchester Avenue and Vermont Avenue around 12:50 a.m., according to KTLA.
Weeks earlier, in March, police investigated what appeared to be another fatal hit-and-run in the same Vermont Knolls neighborhood, this time in the 7500 block of South Hoover Street between 75th and 76th streets around 5:30 p.m., KTLA reported. In that case, the suspect vehicle was described as a black 2005 Cadillac, though no description of the driver was ever released. It remains unclear whether the March and April reports describe the same crash or two separate incidents.
Driver Who Stopped Contrasts With Ones Who Didn't
A similar scenario played out in Watts in August, when a man was struck by two vehicles while crossing Imperial Highway near Nickerson Gardens. The Los Angeles Police Department said an eastbound, light-colored SUV struck the pedestrian first and fled without stopping, while a second, westbound driver who hit him as he lay in the street stopped and cooperated with investigators, according to MyNewsLA. LAPD's South Traffic Division asked anyone with information in that case to come forward.
In a separate LAPD bulletin on that same crash, police said the pedestrian sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, and the department is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the identification, apprehension and conviction of the driver who fled, or a resolution through civil compromise. The victim's identity in that case was withheld pending notification of next of kin.
Fleeing Drivers Kill Thousands of Pedestrians Nationwide
The East LA case fits into a grim national pattern. Drivers who fled the scene killed 1,669 pedestrians in 2024, accounting for nearly a quarter of all pedestrian deaths that year, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association. The group also found that light trucks, including SUVs, pickups and vans, were the striking vehicle in just over half of all pedestrian fatalities that year.
GHSA projects that 6,732 pedestrians were killed nationwide in 2025, a 7% drop from the prior year, though the toll remains steep. The group's data also show that 84% of pedestrian crashes happen in urban areas like East Los Angeles, and that more than three-quarters of fatal crashes with known lighting conditions occurred after dark, matching the nighttime timing of Friday's crash.
LAPD has not released a description of the vehicle involved in Friday's crash or the driver behind the wheel. The investigation remains active, and no suspect has been identified or taken into custody.
