A 40-year-old man from Bradford, Ont., has been arrested after an elderly woman was fatally struck by an SUV on Highway 400 early Thursday morning.
OPP say the driver turned himself in to police. He has been arrested for failing to stop at the scene of a vehicle collision that involved a death. He will appear in court Friday.
His arrest comes after Chandrowtie Basdeo's family made a public appeal for the driver of the vehicle to come forward.
Basdeo, 82, was found on the west shoulder of the highway at Kirby Road at approximately 4:30 a.m. Police say the Vaughan woman, who lives several kilometres south from where her body was found, was likely walking in the southbound lanes at the time of the incident.
She was reported missing by her family at approximately 10 p.m. on Wednesday. The family told CTV Toronto's Naomi Parness that the woman had Alzheimer's. Basdeo was a mother of eight, and had dozens of grandchildren. Earlier on Thursday, they made a public appeal for the driver to turn themselves in to police, saying they “just need some peace.”
“For the person who did hit her, we’re not out here to judge you or discriminate against you,” one of Basdeo’s granddaughters, Allessandra, said. “If he or she were to bring themselves forward, we would feel a little bit more at ease and at peace.”
The southbound lanes of Hwy. 400 at King Road were temporarily closed as officers investigated the incident. It reopened at approximately 9 a.m.
The Esso Service Centre on the side of the highway near the incident was also closed as police interviewed potential witnesses, but it has since been reopened.
