California Highway Patrol officers are searching for a driver who struck a 19-year-old pedestrian on a freeway in Vista early Saturday, leaving the victim to die on the road.
CHP Officer Ralph Ketcher, with the agency’s Oceanside office, said the victim was hit by a car just after 4 a.m. on eastbound State Route 78 east of Vista Village.
For unknown reasons, the pedestrian had made his way onto the lanes of the freeway. Just then, a driver traveling in the middle lane on SR-78 approached the area and struck the pedestrian.
A passerby reported the incident and when officers arrived, they discovered the young man lying in the No. 3 lane.
He was dead.
Ketcher said there were no cars in or around the scene of the collision by the time officers arrived. The driver had fled – leaving investigators with few clues to work with.
Ketcher said, at this point, there is no description of the hit-and-run suspect or the vehicle that hit the pedestrian. The freeway was shut down for about two hours while officers collected evidence.
Local
No one else was hurt in the incident. The victim’s name was not immediately released though Ketcher did say he was a resident of Vista.
The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information on this hit-and-run can contact the CHP’s Oceanside office at (760) 643-3400 or (858) 637-3800.
