CHESTERFIELD, Va. (WTVR)— A man in his 20s walking across the 6200 block of Hopkins Road was struck by two vehicles and fatally injured Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. – after dark - in a long stretch of roadway lit by one streetlight.
The pedestrian, whose identity has not been released pending notification of family, was first hit by a northbound 1999 Pontiac, and then was struck by a brown-colored truck, also northbound, which fled the scene, Chesterfield police reported.
The driver of the Pontiac stopped immediately. The driver of the brown truck fled the scene. Anyone with information about that vehicle or driver is asked to call 748-1251. If you wish to remain anonymous, please call Crime Solvers at 748-0660.
Tim Freeman was raking leaves in his front yard very close to the scene when he heard what “sounded like a fender-bender . . . I seen something laying in the road so I ran over and by the time I got there it was too late already . . . ”
“It was tough,” said next-door neighbor Bob Akers, who was also working outside. “It’s hard to see something like that. Numerous times, throughout the day and the night, you can be out here and see people crossing the road.”
This is an busy area for pedestrians going to the library, Hopkins Road Elementary and nearby businesses, such as a grocery, Walgreens and a McDonald’s.
There is no crosswalk. There is only one street light near where the incident occurred, although there are a steady line of streetlights about a quarter mile to the north and lights about an eighth of a mile to the south.
“It’s hard to see,” Akers said. “The sidewalks are on the wrong side of the road, actually, because whenever anybody wants to walk down through here to the grocery store or McDonald’s or whatever, they’re on this side of the road.”
“It’s kind of dark from this last streetlight here al l the way down to McDonald’s,” Freeman said. “It would be nice to have some extra lights. That way people can see other people walking.”
There have been several pedestrians – including three juveniles - struck on Hopkins Road south of Chippenham Parkway in the past eight years, records show.
In July of 2006, two juveniles were hit by a pickup that veered onto the sidewalk in the daytime on Hopkins Road near Chippenham Parkway.
In Feburary of 2008, a car struck and killed a pedestrian in the 5400 block of Hopkins at 1 a.m.
And in May of 2010, a juvenile riding a bicycle was struck by a vehicle and injured in the afternoon in the 6000 block of Hopkins, right by the elementary school.
