A man in his 70s was struck by a hit-and-run driver in North Hills on Sunday afternoon, according to Los Angeles Police Department detectives, marking yet another pedestrian crash to hit the San Fernando Valley in recent weeks. The driver fled the scene without stopping to render aid, leaving investigators to piece together what happened.
The injury crash was first reported by CBS News Los Angeles, which cited LAPD detectives in confirming the pedestrian's age and the circumstances of the incident. Further details about the exact crash location, the vehicle involved, and the pedestrian's condition have not been released. The case falls under the jurisdiction of the LAPD's Valley Traffic Division, which investigates traffic collisions and hit-and-run crimes across 221.8 square miles and 2,823 street miles spanning the entire San Fernando Valley, including North Hills.
A Troubling Pattern Along the Valley's Deadliest Streets
Sunday's crash is the latest in a cluster of hit-and-run incidents that have rattled the neighborhood and its neighbors in recent weeks. Just weeks earlier, on September 13, a male pedestrian in his 40s was fatally struck by two separate fleeing vehicles while crossing Sepulveda Boulevard near Parthenia Street in North Hills, a case Hoodline covered in two vehicles vanish after fatal crash. In nearby Granada Hills, a gray Honda Accord struck a woman in her 70s as she crossed Chatsworth Street on August 30 before fleeing without rendering aid, with LAPD later releasing surveillance video in hopes of identifying the driver. And just last weekend, a separate fatal pedestrian hit-and-run struck North Hollywood, with the driver still at large as of that report.
The pattern is not confined to isolated bad luck. Major thoroughfares in North Hills — including Sepulveda Boulevard, Nordhoff Street, Parthenia Street, and Roscoe Boulevard — are designated on the Los Angeles Department of Transportation's High Injury Network due to elevated crash risks, according to a study from the CSUN Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Citywide, roughly 65% of all killed or severely injured traffic collisions occur on just 6% of Los Angeles's street network, according to a LADOT Vision Zero study, underscoring how concentrated the danger is on a handful of corridors like the ones running through North Hills.
Citywide Numbers Still Outpace Homicides
The broader numbers paint a grim backdrop. Traffic collisions killed 290 people in Los Angeles in 2025, with more than 150 of those fatal crashes involving pedestrians — a toll that exceeded city homicides by 60 in 2025, per LAist. That comes even as LAPD data shows traffic fatalities fell 6% from 2024 to 2025, suggesting the city's Vision Zero safety push has made some headway even as pedestrian deaths remain stubbornly high.
North Hills has a painful history with hit-and-run tragedy. In October 2021, a multi-vehicle crash at Nordhoff Street and Langdon Avenue pushed a vehicle onto a sidewalk, fatally injuring a 1.5-year-old child in a stroller while an involved driver fled the scene, a case that prompted the city to offer a $50,000 reward for information.
What Drivers Could Face Under State Law
Under California Vehicle Code Section 20001, fleeing the scene of an accident that causes injury or death is a wobbler offense that can be charged as a felony, carrying up to four years in state prison and fines as high as $10,000, according to FindLaw. State law requires drivers involved in injury crashes to stop immediately and render assistance to anyone hurt.
The city has also built in financial incentives to help crack these cases. Under the Los Angeles Administrative Code's Hit-and-Run Reward Program Trust Fund, established in 2015, the city offers standing rewards of up to $25,000 for information leading to the identification and conviction of drivers involved in fatal hit-and-runs. Anyone with information about Sunday's North Hills crash is encouraged to contact LAPD's Valley Traffic Division as detectives continue working to identify the driver responsible.
