A woman in her 30s is dead after being struck by a vehicle in an early morning hit-and-run in Mississauga, with police saying they are confident the driver will be identified.
In a post online, Peel regional police say they responded at about 6 a.m. to the intersection of Eglinton Avenue and Erin Mills Parkway.
Police say upon being struck, the woman was pronounced dead at the scene.
Speaking to reporters at the scene, investigators withdrew an earlier description of the suspect vehicle as a light-coloured sedan.
Const. Tyler Bell-Morena said police determined the light-coloured vehicle was actually driven by one of the people who reported the collision.
“What we can tell you right now is that there were a lot of preliminary information suggesting that it was a light colored vehicle that fled the scene. We since determined that vehicle is actually one of our complainants, so not a light colored sedan,” Bell-Morena said.
He added that officials are examining vehicle debris recovered at the scene and believe it will allow them to identify the make and model of the suspect vehicle.
“There’s some debris here on scene that our major collision bureau is processing. They’re quite confident they’re able to identify a make and model of vehicle based on the debris. I just can’t confirm that quite yet.”
Bell-Morena also noted that investigators also have significant video evidence.
“There’s absolutely no question that this individual that hit this woman knows that they hit a person and continued,” he said.
“I also will reiterate, we have substantial dash cam footage available to us that our detectives are now going through. We have substantial camera footage here at this intersection. It is a matter of time before we identify the person responsible.”
He also had a firm message for the driver.
“You know that you hit somebody, lawyer up and turn yourself into police,” he said, adding that visibility was not a factor at the time of the collision.
“Lighting conditions were much like they are now, visibility wasn’t an issue, as you can see, this is a very open intersection, there’s no construction, there was no heavy vehicular traffic at the time.”
He added that while the intersection has been the scene of fatal collisions in the past, they are not common.
“This is a very busy intersection, it’s a large one, multiple lanes in all directions. I’ve been here before for two fatal collisions. It’s not a regular occurrence, but there has been tragedy here before.”
The intersection remains closed and drivers are being asked to use alternate routes.
