WEST VALLEY CITY – Police are asking for help identifying the driver and the victim of a fatal hit-and-run crash that occurred in West Valley City Saturday night or early Sunday morning.
West Valley Police say a witness called in around 1 a.m. Sunday claiming to have found a dead man on the grass near 6750 West Frontage Road.
“Our dispatch was asking them if they thought we could do life saving care, CPR or something like that, to try to save this person, and their initial witness on scene thought that he was dead,” said Lt. Jeff Conger of West Valley City Police Department.
Conger said police and medical personnel rushed to the scene and found the man on the side of the road.
“From all indications of the position of his body and some evidence on scene, it looked like he had been hit by a car,” Conger said.
Conger said while they aren’t sure exactly what happened, they did receive a call about an intoxicated person in that area.
“We did have reports of a male in the area about an hour prior, that was in the area drunk, looked like he might be wandering or trying to wander into traffic,” Conger said. “We did send officers on that, searched the area for a good half an hour or so and didn’t find him at that time…. So we don’t know if he left the area or if it’s the same exact person, because we get calls like that quite often.”
Police are looking for a vehicle that may possibly be involved, saying it could be a Ford Econoline passenger van of a model year from between 1992 and 2008. Police aren’t sure what color the van is but say it may have damage to the front of the vehicle.
Police say it’s possible the driver in question isn’t aware they hit someone. They ask anyone with information about the case to contact police at 801-840-4000.
Police have not been able to identify the deceased yet. They ask anyone who believes they know his identity to contact them. The deceased is a Hispanic male believed to be between the ages of 25 and 30. He was an estimated 5-feet, 5-inches tall and was balding with a goatee.
