A man was struck by a hit-and-run motorist on Preston Highway at Phillips Lane. The collision took place on Sunday, February 21, 2016 at about 4:00a.m. The unidentified man suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to University Hospital.
The incident was reported by WHAS11 and WLKY.
WHAS11 called the collision an accident. A witness told WHAS11 that “the driver sped through the red light, hitting the pedestrian.” It’s no accident that someone got hurt.
“I guess the car was trying to beat the yellow light and at that time, you hear a smacking as I was turning back towards him,” witness Zachary Goodlett told WHAS11. “About 8 feet before the stoplight, he got hit and just drug to about this area down here on top of the car and he come off right here in front of Taco Bell.”
Anyone with information about the hit-and-run is encouraged to call the Louisville Metro Police Department’s Anonymous Tip Line at 502-574-LMPD.
The speed limit in this area is 35 miles per hour, but the road is designed to accommodate much higher speeds. Sidewalks and one crosswalks is marked at Phillips Lane, but it’s still by no means pedestrian friendly. Oversized turning radii help motorists speed around corners and there are no refuges in crossing the five-lane street. And an enormous parking lot at a shopping center dwarfs the urban scale.
The next crosswalk to the north is 2,200 feet away at Audubon Parkway and the next to the south is 1,250 feet away at Belmar Drive. For comparison, intersections with crosswalks in Downtown Louisville are generally less than 500 feet apart.
Another pedestrian was struck on Preston Highway just south of this site at Male High School where a crossing guard was struck by a motorist on February 18.
Louisville is currently in the midst of a three-year pedestrian safety campaign called Look Alive Louisville. The federally funded program is in response to the city’s above average pedestrian fatality and collision rate.
