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Conn. Community Rocked By Fatal Hit-And-Run

NEW CANAAN, Conn. (CBS 2) -- A hit-and-run horror has rocked a posh Connecticut community. An elderly man from New Canaan was struck and killed while walking to his mailbox, reports CBS 2's John Slattery.

The victim's son says it's incredibly painful to lose his father to a hit-and-run driver.

"For somebody not to even come and knock on the door or say anything, it's like you never got a chance to say goodbye," Jay Krishna, the victim's son, said.

The victim, 82-year-old Krishna Jayaraman, was a retired former head of an international engineering firm. He lived with his wife in their home on Oenoke Road in New Canaan, right on the New York border. Their son's home is right next door.

The accident happened just after 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. Jayaraman's family said he had walked out to the road to check his mailbox when he was hit by a passing car that just kept going.

"I don't think he even picked his mail up," Krishna said.

Jayaraman was slammed to the driveway. There were no skid marks, though police did recover shattered glass from the passenger side mirror, believed to have come from an SUV.

"It helped us exclude certain vehicles," New Canaan Police Sergeant Carol Ogrinc said. "It didn't tell us the exact type of vehicle, but it did help us in excluding certain vehicles."

The mailbox is located so that Jayaraman almost had to stand in the road to open it. Everyone who spoke to CBS 2 said that if only the driver had stopped, a life might have been saved.

"And would come forward and informed us, so we could have used the valuable minutes saving a life," Krishna said.

After moving from India to watch his son achieve the American dream, a man whose life had been so full was gone in an instant.

Police say while there were no witnesses at the scene, they are checking body shops in the region and have been following up on leads.

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