NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - WSMV4 obtained new surveillance video that shows the aftermath of a deadly hit-and-run incident that happened in South Nashville Monday night.
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) says a scooter rider tried to cross over Old Hickory Boulevard at about 6:50 p.m. when a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck hit the rider. The rider was then dragged underneath the pickup nearly 900 feet before they were able to release at the Firestone Parkway intersection.
MNPD says the scooter rider died on the scene. They say the driver of the pickup took off.
"I was actually on my way home and they had it all blocked off last night," nearby resident Josh Patton said. "I saw kind of what had happened."
Surveillance video from a nearby gas station shows a dark-colored pickup truck flying through the Firestone Parkway and Old Hickory Boulevard intersection. In its wake, a man is seen on the ground in the intersection with parts of a scooter strewn about.
The pickup truck fled the scene toward Murfreesboro Pike.
"[People] just go almost a hundred miles an hour," Patton said. "I've seen [it] sometimes, and it's just crazy, man. They just need to slow down really bad."
Patton, who himself drives a pickup truck, struggled to figure out how someone could not have stopped after hitting the person on the scooter.
"That's so heartbreaking that they just run from that," Patton said.
In Tennessee, hit-and-run crimes are not unpopular. The Volunteer State ranked fifth nationwide in 2022 in hit-and-run crimes per capita.
"I've pretty much been here my whole life and through here, they just fly through here for sure," Patton said. "I was going to say, people just need to slow down and they don't need to be in such a big hurry to go."
Metro Nashville police say they're still searching for the driver of the Toyota Tacoma pickup they believe is involved.
"I mean, it was just a freak accident,' Patton said. "I just can't believe that man. I saw it, just broke my heart."
The victim in this incident has not yet been identified.