Police in the Buffalo area are searching for the driver of a sport-utility vehicle that struck and killed a 2007 graduate of Edmeston Central School over the weekend.
Meghan Sorbera, 19, who was a sophomore at Hilbert College, was walking with two friends along the shoulder of South Park Avenue in the town of Hamburg at about 1:35 a.m. Saturday when a northbound SUV hit her and then fled, Hamburg police said Sunday.
Sorbera, of Burlington Flats, was tossed several yards by the impact and suffered a severe head injury, police said.
She died about six hours later at Erie County Medical Center, according to police.
The impact left behind pieces of the vehicle, which police, working with a local car dealership, were able to determine came from a 2002 or 2003 Ford Explorer, said Hamburg police Lt. Greg Wickett.
"We're still looking for the car," Wickett said Sunday night. "We're doing everything we can."
Hamburg is about 10 miles south of Buffalo.
Sorbera and her friends were returning home after working at a nearby haunted house attraction near the Hilbert College campus. They were walking with traffic in a lighted, 45 mph section of the street when the crash occurred, according to a report in The Buffalo News.
News of Sorbera's death spread quickly through the Edmeston area, said former Edmeston track coach Les Bush.
"Anytime you lose somebody that young it's always a tragedy," Bush said Sunday.
Bush said he remembers a quiet, hard-working girl who was self-motivated.
"She had a lot of interest in distance running," Bush said.
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But her hard work and motivation weren't limited to athletics, he said.
"She was involved in a number of activities in the school besides track," Bush said.
One of these activities was working with young children, said Edmeston Principal Martha Winsor.
"She was a real sweet girl," Winsor said, adding that Sorbera has a brother in second grade at the school.
School staff will be notified before school starts today, but Winsor said Sorbera was well-known in the community and most staff and students have probably already learned of her death. Counselors will be available for students, she said.
"It's a tragedy," Winsor said. "We'll take this one step at a time. We're very, very saddened for the family."
Police said witnesses were not sure what color the SUV was, but because of debris found in the road, it was determined the front, passenger headlight and fog lamp were damaged in the collision and the windshield on the passenger side may have been smashed.
Wickett said a "media blitz" was launched to help find the driver.
