A 19-year-old pedestrian was killed in a hit-and-run on State Route 78 in Vista. NBC 7’s Ramon Galindo has more on the investigation.
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.
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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.
