Hit-and-Run Injures Pedestrian on Raleigh's Dangerous South Saunders Street

A hit-and-run driver struck a pedestrian on South Saunders Street in downtown Raleigh Thursday night and fled, leaving the victim with minor injuries on a corridor that has claimed two lives since 2022. Raleigh Police Department officers responded and found the pedestrian at the scene, but no description of the vehicle or driver has been publicly released. Anyone with information about the crash is asked to contact the Raleigh Police Department directly.

South Saunders Street's track record makes it one of the most hazardous pedestrian corridors in the city, and the pattern is concentrated in the evening hours. On February 10, 2025, a pedestrian suffered serious injuries after being struck near Carolina Pines Avenue and Ileagnes Road at around 6:30 p.m., closing all outbound lanes while police investigated. At 2501 S. Saunders St., near the Super 8 motel, a man was struck around 7:50 p.m. on a Saturday night and transported to a hospital with serious injuries; that collision shut down two lanes and backed traffic to Interstate 40.

Two of those prior incidents proved fatal. A woman was killed by a hit-and-run driver at South Saunders and Wilmington Street in October 2022. A pedestrian also died at South Saunders and Pecan Road. The South Saunders and Prospect Avenue intersection alone recorded 15 injury crashes over five years, prompting the City of Raleigh to install a new traffic signal there under its Vision Zero initiative, funded through NCDOT's Spot Safety program. The South Saunders/I-40 interchange has been separately identified as one of Raleigh's most dangerous intersections citywide.

The broader numbers explain why. Raleigh recorded 190 pedestrian crashes and 13 pedestrian deaths in 2024. Pedestrians accounted for more than one in four traffic fatalities in the city in 2023, the same year speeding contributed to more than 54% of all fatal crashes. Across Wake County, the five-year average from 2020 to 2024 was 256 pedestrian injuries and 103 traffic deaths per year across more than 30,000 annual crashes.

Raleigh's Vision Zero program targets the elimination of all traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2040-2045. The city's Comprehensive Safety Action Plan, completed in late 2025 with a $1 million federal Safe Streets and Roads for All grant, has delivered streetlight upgrades at 10 key locations, signal and crosswalk improvements at high-risk intersections, and school zone signage updates. But Raleigh is the second-largest rapidly expanding metropolitan area in the United States, and a 20-year infrastructure timeline offers little protection to the people crossing South Saunders Street right now.