DETROIT – Michigan State Police say a pair of hit-and-run crashes left one woman dead Thursday morning and shut down a stretch of I-94 in Detroit for several hours.
Police said 22-year-old Carlita Charmaine Young was hit and killed just after 2 a.m. when she got out of her Chrysler Sebring that was stopped in the far right westbound lane near Newport Road.
The driver who hit her, a man believed to be in his 60s and driver an older model Cadillac, fled the scene.
Michigan State Police Lt. Michael Shaw said investigators learned the Cadillac driver did not own the car. Officers know who that driver is.
"If he would have just remained there on the scene of the crash and we would have been able to interview him, he probably would not have been found at fault because we don't usually expect to see a pedestrian standing in the middle of the roadway as we're driving down the freeway, so he kind of made it worse for himself by taking off from the scene," Shaw said.
An oncoming Oldsmobile Intrigue slowed down for the crash and was rear-ended by a Chevy Cruze, police said.
The driver of the Oldsmobile took off on foot.
Lt. Michael Shaw said investigators are actively looking for that driver.
"That's somebody we are looking for too just to see if they witnessed something with the crash, if these people all knew each other or if it was just a strange occurrence, but again this is another individual who stopped to see what was going on and was rear-ended. The crash wasn't his fault," Shaw said.
State Police said they have seen many similar instances on Detroit freeways. People who might have outstanding warrants against them, or are driving without insurance of a license, will run away from accident scenes. Running away like that cam lead to felony charges.
The freeway closure from the accidents backed up traffic for the morning commute. It reopened at about 6:45 a.m.