A woman crossing the street in West Garfield Park was killed Wednesday night after a driver struck her and sped off without stopping, Chicago police said. The crash happened at about 9:45 p.m. in the 4200-block of West Madison Street, and police are searching for the driver.
Police said the woman was struck by a white sedan that fled the scene, according to ABC7 Chicago. She was transported to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where she was later pronounced dead, police said. Area Four detectives are now investigating the hit-and-run, the outlet reported.
A Second Garfield Park Crash Still Unresolved
This is not the only recent hit-and-run to rattle the Garfield Park area. In August, a woman was critically injured after a vehicle struck her late at night in the 3800 block of West Van Buren Street, leaving her unresponsive with trauma to her body before she was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. That case was assigned to the Major Accident Investigation Unit, the paper noted, a different unit than the Area Four detectives now working Wednesday's fatal crash.
Chicago has seen a string of similar cases this year. In June, a hit-and-run driver ran a red light and fatally struck a 42-year-old woman crossing South Ashland Avenue in Auburn Gresham, marking the third pedestrian death on that street in the city this year, per Streetsblog Chicago. In July, a 24-year-old driver traveling north on Pulaski Road and attempting to turn west in West Lawn struck and killed a 71-year-old man, though that driver stayed at the scene; the same outlet's report noted it was the fourth fatal pedestrian crash on Pulaski this year.
Pedestrians Bear the Brunt of Hit-and-Runs Citywide
Pedestrians suffered the highest share of hit-and-run crashes in Chicago last year, accounting for 42 percent of them, according to the same Streetsblog Chicago analysis of the city's annual traffic crash data.
Still, the data suggests West Garfield Park has made real gains on street safety. Serious and fatal traffic injuries fell 39 percent between 2021 and 2024 across West Garfield Park and three neighboring West Side communities, while pedestrian and bike fatalities in those same areas dropped 69 percent, per the report.
Hit-and-run fatalities involving fleeing sedans have also surfaced elsewhere on the city's South Side. In a 2024 case in Chicago Lawn, a 54-year-old woman was struck and killed while crossing South Western Avenue by a gray or black four-door sedan whose driver fled, according to the Sun-Times. No arrest details for Wednesday night's West Garfield Park crash have been released, and the investigation remains active.
