Hit-and-run kills man, 80

An 80-year-old man was killed Thursday when he stepped off a bus and was hit by a passing car that sped off.

Killed was:

Robert Edwin Elbel, 80, of East Millcreek.

Elbel was hit just before 6 p.m. while he was attempting to cross Highland Drive near 3500 South. He was headed home from the University of Utah, where he works as an unpaid research professor in the biology department at the University of Utah.

Police are looking for the driver of the vehicle, who witnesses say fled the scene in a red-and-white Mustang-type car just after the man was hit, according to Salt Lake County Sheriff's Sgt. Paul Jaroscak.

Witnesses said the driver of the vehicle stopped briefly, looked at the man and then drove off.

"A witness had passed the man starting to cross the road, she actually swerved to miss him," Jaroscak said. "She was in the process of turning around to go back and warn him to get out of the way when she saw he'd been hit."

Elbel had just stepped off a Utah Transit Authority bus and began to cross the street. He was headed west and was not in a designated crosswalk when he was hit by the southbound car. He was reportedly wearing dark clothing and was waving his cane at passing cars to slow them down, Jaroscak said.

"It is believed this is the way he gets home from work," he said. "He gets off the bus, crosses and heads straight up the street."

"We're hoping to locate the said vehicle either to identify or eliminate the possibility of it hitting this man," Jaroscak said. The vehicle that struck him probably had damage to the front end and possibly the windshield.

"It's kind of sketchy because no one actually saw the accident," he said.

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E-MAIL: wleonard@desnews.com