A 40-year-old man is dead after being hit by a dump truck in Lawrence Heights Wednesday afternoon.
The crash happened at the Lawrence and Marlee avenues intersection shortly before 2 p.m.
According to police, the truck left the scene after colliding with the male.
Paramedics arrived on scene and performed CPR on the victim before rushing him to hospital via emergency run. He died of his injuries a short time later.
Police described the crash as “very, very bad.”
One witness in the area told CP24 that the driver “had to have known” they hit the man.
“There was a man crossing the street, a dump truck came off the Allen expressway and turned onto Lawrence and ran him over, completely. It was really bad… Then they just drove away,” the witness, who wished to remain anonymous, said.
“He had to have known. It was a stop he was coming around, it wasn’t like he was speeding down and didn’t notice. In my opinion, he had to have known.”
Around 4:30 p.m., Sgt. Brett Moore said the truck involved in the collision had been located.
“Initial reports were that the vehicle did leave the scene and that’s part of the investigation due to the size of the vehicle, the nature of the turning movements,” Moore said. “It was initially let go as a fail-to-remain but we had lots of great witnesses and I want to thank the public for that.”
Police said it’s too early to tell what the truck driver did or did not know.
“What we can report at this point is that the driver and the company are both cooperating with investigators,” Moore said.
The intersection was closed while police investigated the incident, but it has since reopened.
