Aurora police are looking for the driver of an SUV who fled after striking and killing a man trying to clean a sewer drain in Monday night’s storm.
Roberto Martinez, 49, was unclogging a sewer drain on the south side of the 1700 block of West Illinois Avenue about 11 p.m. and started to walk back toward his home when he was hit by someone driving a white or silver sport-utility vehicle, Aurora police said.
The driver kept going down the street with Martinez on his hood and then turned sharply, tossing Martinez to the ground. The driver then fled east on Illinois Avenue, police said.
Martinez, who police said suffered “massive head injuries,” was taken to Provena Mercy Center Hospital in Aurora and later transferred to Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, where he died Tuesday afternoon, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
Witnesses said the vehicle was about the size of a Ford Explorer or a Jeep Cherokee, but could not make out the make or model or who was in the vehicle, said Dan Ferrelli, spokesman for the Aurora Police Department. Police for the time being are treating the incident as a “fatal accident investigation,” he said. In Illinois, it is a felony to leave the scene of an accident causing personal injury.
“We need the person responsible for this to turn themselves in, and/or we need people who have information, whether direct witnesses or not, to come forward,” Ferrelli said Tuesday.
The street where Martinez was struck has a posted 30 miles per hour speed limit and is a two-lane road.
Neighbor Larry Armstrong said he heard sirens blaring late Monday night but thought it was related to the storm.
“I didn’t know it was him,” Armstrong said of the hit and run. “That’s ridiculous.”
Armstrong described Martinez as a nice and friendly neighbor who has a grown son. Martinez often cleaned the gutters during heavy rains, a job he shared with Armstrong.
Another neighbor said the street is very busy, with a number of cars from nearby apartment complexes coming and going.
“There’s a lot of traffic here,” said Dolores Taylor, who was asleep Monday night when the hit and run occurred. “But that’s terrible. That’s a shame.”
Police are asking anyone with information to contact the traffic investigators at 630-801-6556 or Crime Stoppers at 630-892-1000.
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arozas@tribune.com
