A man in his early 50s is fighting for his life after being struck by a vehicle in south Edmonton, and the driver who hit him drove away.
Edmonton police say the man was on 42 Avenue, near Calgary Trail South, when a vehicle hit him between 10:30 and 10:45 a.m. on Friday, July 24. He was taken to hospital by EMS with life-threatening injuries. The driver left the scene, and police are now trying to identify them.
A busy corridor, a mid-morning crash
The collision happened on one of south Edmonton's main arteries, at a mid-morning hour when the area is busy with commercial and commuter traffic. Calgary Trail carries heavy volume through that stretch all day, and the 42 Avenue area is thick with retail and businesses.
That works in the investigation's favour. A crash there on a Friday morning means people were around, in cars, in parking lots, walking between stores, and many of those cars have dashcams. A fleeing driver still leaves a trail: a vehicle description, a direction of travel, sometimes a plate, recorded by whoever happened to be passing.
What police need from the public
Anyone who saw the collision, or who drove through 42 Avenue and Calgary Trail South around 10:30 to 10:45 a.m. Friday, is asked to contact the EPS at 780-423-4567, or #377 from a mobile phone.
Dashcam footage helps even if it didn't capture the crash. Video of the vehicle before or after, on Calgary Trail or a nearby street, can hand investigators the description or direction they're missing. Anyone who drove that route Friday morning should check their footage.
Calgary Trail's pedestrian record
The location isn't incidental. Wide, high-speed arterial roads like Calgary Trail are where Edmonton's most serious pedestrian collisions tend to happen, and the city has flagged corridors like it in its traffic-safety work for years.
The reason is built into the road. Arterials move a lot of vehicles at higher speeds, with long gaps between crossings, and a person hit at 60 or 70 km/h is far more likely to be killed or seriously hurt than one hit on a slower residential street. Edmonton's Vision Zero program, the city's goal of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries, has concentrated on exactly these high-speed, high-volume roads because that's where the severe outcomes cluster. Friday's collision, mid-morning, life-threatening, on a major arterial, fits the pattern the city has been trying to break.
Leaving the scene is a separate offence
Fleeing a crash carries its own consequences, apart from the collision itself. Failing to remain at the scene is an offence under both the Criminal Code and Alberta's Traffic Safety Act, and when a collision causes bodily harm, the criminal charge for leaving can bring serious penalties. It applies regardless of who was at fault for the crash.
Police have not released a description of the vehicle or driver, and the man's condition had not been updated as of the release.
Sources:
Edmonton Police Service, media release, July 25, 2026: https://www.edmontonpolice.ca/News/MediaReleases/HitandRunJuly24
City of Edmonton, Vision Zero and Safe Mobility program
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