Police Search For Hit, Run Driver

Fayetteville police work the scene of a hit-and-run accident Monday where a pedestrian was injured.
Fayetteville police work the scene of a hit-and-run accident Monday where a pedestrian was injured.

FAYETTEVILLE — Ambulance crews took a pedestrian with severe injuries to the hospital Monday after a vehicle hit him near a fast food restaurant on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard then fled.

The life-threatening injuries led several detectives and an accident reconstruction expert to examine the scene of the accident that happened about 2:30 p.m. between Sang Avenue and Lewis Avenue and blocked traffic for more than 90 minutes.

Detectives didn't release the name of the injured person Monday evening. The man was taken to Washington Regional Medical Center and was being transferred to another hospital, Sgt. Craig Stout, police spokesman, said at 5:30 p.m.

Paul Thomas, a motorist, said he saw the accident. Thomas said he saw the man running across the boulevard toward a Kentucky Fried Chicken. There was no crosswalk.

“He just tried to beat the car and he got too close,” Thomas said. “I thought, man, they’re going to slow down so that the guy can get around. They didn’t. They hit the brakes once they hit him. They slowed down and hesitated around where the Braum’s is.”

Thomas said the car sped away heading west. He believed there were multiple people in the vehicle, he said.

The impact from the vehicle was enough to lift the man from the ground, Thomas said. Ambulance crews arrived quickly, he said.

Police collected a baseball hat, a shoe and other evidence.

Stout said officers canvassed nearby neighborhoods and businesses looking for a white or silver Ford Taurus.

Motorists in Arkansas killed 42 pedestrians in 2011, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Of the 42, eight were improperly crossing a roadway, inattentive or darting and running into the road.

One of the most recent Fayetteville fatalities from a pedestrian hit-and-run accident occurred in December 2009, Stout said. Robert E. Lee Ehrhardt, 21, was found guilty of felony leaving the scene of a personal injury accident in the death of Shamika Redden, 28. A judge sentenced Ehrhardt to 72 months in prison with 24 months suspended, according to court documents.

In January, police arrested Charles Kalan Jones, 26, in connection with a hit-and-run accident near Dickson Street that sent two people to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. His trial is scheduled to start Monday.

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