A motorist fled the scene after striking two pedestrians walking on a residential street off Dixie Highway early Sunday morning, killing one. The collision happened just after 3:00a.m. Sunday on Alanadale Drive in Valley Station about a block from Valley High School.
According to multiple news reports the pedestrians were walking west and the motorist was driving west before striking them from behind, leaving the two injured women’s bodies lying in the street. The two walkers were taken to University Hospital where one died and the other was in serious condition.
According to WAVE3, the victims, 43-year-old Joan Hardin and her friend Tracy Stovall, were walking to a nearby convenience store. Stovall was pronounced dead at the hospital and Hardin’s condition has since been upgraded to stable. Family members told the television station that all of Hardin’s ribs were broken in the crash and that she “has a punctured lung and a laceration on her liver. Her back is broken in two places.”
Alanadale Drive has a posted speed limit of 25 miles per hour.
Louisville Metro Police are asking for tips from the community about the hit-and-run driver. They believe the vehicle may be black or another dark color. Anyone with information is asked to call the CrimeTip Hotline at 502-574-LMPD (5673).
This stretch of Alanadale Drive experienced vehicular tragedy earlier this year on New Year’s Day when a motorist was thrown from her vehicle and killed after after speeding and flipping her car, eventually hitting a house. That crash also took place after 3:00a.m.
The crash was covered by many local media outlets (WHAS11, WAVE3, WDRB, WLKY, C-J). The Courier-Journal was the only one to call the collision an accident, a topic we discussed last week. WLKY was the only source to note that the driver struck the pedestrians rather than a seemingly autonomous “vehicle.” In an unfortunate coincidence, the online video accompanying WLKY’s article was preceded by an advertisement featuring a speeding sports car.
