Hit-and-run driver sought by CHP after pedestrian, 78, is killed near California casino

Law enforcement officials are looking for a sedan and its driver after a hit-and-run crash killed a 78-year-old pedestrian last week near a Northern California casino.

The deadly crash happened sometime Friday evening along northbound Forty Mile Road south of Highway 65, near Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Wheatland, the California Highway Patrol’s Yuba-Sutter office said in a news release.

The CHP said it was contacted by the Yuba County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday morning after a man was found dead on the east shoulder of Forty Mile Road.

The suspect vehicle, believed to be a white Chevrolet Malibu, model year 2016 or newer, allegedly struck a male pedestrian before fleeing the scene toward Highway 65, according to the news release.

The CHP described the pedestrian as a 78-year-old Olivehurst man, whose identity will be released by the coroner’s division of the Sheriff’s Office, pending notification of family.

Anybody with information about the vehicle or the identity of its driver is asked to contact the CHP Yuba-Sutter office at 530-645-6200.

The incident is the second deadly hit-and-run this year near the Wheatland casino. In February, a Mercedes-Benz driver turned himself in to the authorities after allegedly hitting and killing a 28-year-old Marysville man along Forty Mile Road, the CHP said at the time.