Louisville, Kentucky: Girl, 2, Killed in Hit-and-Run on Bardstown Road

A 2-year-old girl died early Saturday, Oct. 31, after a driver hit her on Bardstown Road in Louisville and left the scene, according to the Jefferson County Coroner's Office.

Deputy Coroner Dan Alpiger said the girl was struck near the 1100 block of Bardstown Road around 4:20 a.m. She was taken to UofL Hospital, where she was pronounced dead from blunt force injuries just before 5 a.m. WDRB and WAVE, citing the same coroner's office, put the strike at about 4:22 a.m. near the 1101 block of Bardstown Road and the time of death at 4:54 a.m. The coroner's office identified the girl as Montazja Langley.

What officials have and have not said

The coroner's office described the case as a hit-and-run pedestrian strike. Neither the Courier Journal nor WDRB and WAVE carried a description of the driver or the vehicle in their first reports on Saturday morning, and neither report announced an arrest. WDRB reported that Louisville Metro Police had not replied to its request for additional details by the time its story was published on Saturday morning.

The public record so far is narrow. No official account released by Saturday morning says what vehicle was involved, which way it went after the strike, or how the girl came to be in the road at that hour. Those answers sit with the coroner's office and with Louisville Metro Police, and both were still outstanding when the first local reports were published.

Second fatal hit-and-run on Bardstown Road this month

The death is the second fatal hit-and-run on Bardstown Road in Louisville in October. On the night of Oct. 10, a man was struck near Bardstown Road and Fegenbush Lane in the Buechel neighborhood. Bystanders were doing CPR when officers arrived, and the man died at a hospital a short time later. The Jefferson County Coroner's Office later identified him as Fernando L. King, 44, of Louisville.

In that case, Louisville Metro Police said the vehicle, believed to be an SUV, left the scene heading southbound on Bardstown Road, and witnesses gave conflicting descriptions of its color. Police said the man was wearing dark clothing and was not in a crosswalk. The department's Traffic unit investigated that collision, and police asked anyone with information to call the department's anonymous tip line at 502-574-5673 or use its online Crime Tip Portal.

For Louisville, the facts confirmed on Saturday morning are simple and hard. A young child is dead. The coroner's office has called her death a hit-and-run pedestrian strike. No driver had been identified in the reports published by Saturday morning, and Bardstown Road has now seen two fatal hit-and-run cases in a single month.