Woman Dies After Rideshare Driver Leaves Her on Interstate

A woman is dead following a hit-and-run on I-25 in Thornton, Colorado, a Denver suburb. The suspected driver is now under arrest, but as CBS News reports, many people—at least on social media—are "focusing their anger on the rideshare driver" who left the victim and her friends on the side of the interstate shortly after midnight on New Year's Day. Police said the woman became ill inside the car and the driver pulled over on the side of the road. According to CBS, initial reports said the driver terminated the ride, but 9News and others say the passengers "ended the ride and paid the driver."

In any event, the passengers were left on the side of the interstate, and the woman who'd been sick walked into the roadway and was struck by two vehicles, police say: First, she was sideswiped by a pickup truck whose driver didn't stop. She was then hit by another vehicle, which did stop. Police arrived on the scene around 12:30am; the victim hasn't been publicly identified. The pickup driver—identified as 33-year-old Adam Wooley—turned himself in to Thornton police the following day and was arrested for hit-and-run involving death. The rideshare driver also cooperated with investigators but doesn't face criminal liability.

A local personal-injury attorney contacted by CBS said there are "lots of questions" surrounding the incident and that the victim's family could consider a civil case against the rideshare driver. "We're not quite sure exactly what happened ... but we've got a scenario where it needs to be investigated," he said. Per Denver7, it wasn't the only deadly pedestrian-vehicle accident in the area on New Year's Eve. A person in Aurora was killed by an SUV while trying to cross I-225, per police, who say that driver stopped and cooperated with investigators. (More hit-and-run stories.)