‘I don’t want him to be forgotten.’ 70-year-old man dies after North Highlands hit and run

Michael Reed, 70, was walking to his favorite Denny’s in North Highlands to buy a cup of coffee late on the night of Nov. 18. He was a regular customer and it was his favorite spot to socialize, his stepmother and caretaker, Vivian Reed said.

But, as he crossed the intersection at Hillsdale Boulevard and Madison Avenue after 11 p.m., a route he had taken for more than 40 years, a dark colored truck hit him and sped away, leaving him lying in the street with “major injuries,” according to the California Highway Patrol.

Reed died in transport but was revived when he arrived at the hospital, Vivian Reed, 88, said. But after days on life support, he died from his injuries Saturday.

“I don’t want him to be forgotten,” she said tearfully. “It’s just hard.”

According to CHP data, there have been four fatal collisions in the area of North Highlands since October. Previous collisions killed a 73-year-old man who pushed his wife out of the way of a truck, a woman who was struck while walking her dog and a homeless woman attempting to cross Roseville Road.

No arrests have been made in the most recent incident, and CHP investigators are now looking for a “dark-colored truck that should have front end damage that may have been associated with this collision,” according to a news release.

Reed was in the crosswalk when he was struck, but CHP said witness reports indicated the truck, driving eastbound, may have had a green light at the time of the collision.

Vivian Reed learned of the collision after midnight when a CHP officer knocked on the door of her nearby house.

“I thought Mike went to bed so didn’t pay any attention,” she said. “I wouldn’t have let him go if I saw him.”

She said she had been preoccupied that day with her niece who was ill and had to be hospitalized. She had bought Mike a burrito and a large Coke for dinner and last saw him sitting on the front porch with his cat, enjoying one of his favorite meals. She never saw him walk get up and walk down the driveway, she said.

“I kept telling him you can’t go out walking in the dark,” Vivian Reed said. “I was worried about him getting hurt. I wasn’t necessarily thinking he would get hit, but I didn’t want him to get beat up.”

Reed walked the same route he always took to get the Denny’s from his home less than a mile away.

“He did it four or five times a day, every day for 40 years,” she said. “Denny’s is about four blocks from our house. He would go say ‘hi’ ... he would go there and sit for hours and watch people and say ‘hi’ to people that went by. He was always in the neighborhood.”

Reed had been born deaf and had suffered brain damage as a child that made it difficult for him to learn to read and write, she said. He had learned a rudimentary way to communicate using his hands and some words, she said.

Reed loved to take care of his cat, affectionately named “cat,” and was fond of playing pool.

“He was just a nice person,” Vivian Reed said of her stepson. “He never hurt anybody.”

Reed is survived by his stepmother, Vivian, and two sisters.

Anyone with information regarding the hit and run is asked to call the North Sacramento CHP office at 916-348-2300.