Victim's Wife Calls For Hit-And-Run Driver To Come Forward

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – The California Highway Patrol is searching for the driver who killed a man and injured another in a hit-and-run Thursday evening.

California Highway Patrol spokeswoman Lizz Dutton says 54-year-old Paul Pellandini was killed and friend 57-year-old William Collins was seriously hurt when they were hit by a car as they stood outside Pellandini's home in the 4500 block of Winding Way in the Arden-Arcade neighborhood at about 5:45 p.m.

Pellandini's wife found both men lying on the ground after hearing the crash and her granddaughter screaming.

Friday, Carol Pellandini was left wondering how someone could leave her husband for dead.

"Paul had the biggest heart," she said as she clutched a picture of her husband. "He was a help to anyone he met. Anybody that met Paul loved him."

She said Paul was walking his friend out when tragedy struck.

"He was seeing him out to his car and then apparently, um, I heard my granddaughter say 'Oh my god, my papa, he's hurt.' She started screaming, 'He's hurt, my papa's hurt.'"

When Carol found Paul and his friend underneath the pick-up truck, she knew her husband of 25 years was gone.

"I just had a feeling that, just the way his body was at, that he was gone already," she said.

Carol is not only deeply saddened by the loss of her husband, she's also angry.

"I can't imagine who would do something like that," she said, "hit my husband like that and just leave him there and not stop."

Though tragic, residents of the Arden Arcade neighborhood were not all that surprised. They say a cab ended up on a front lawn once and one neighbor has had two hit-and-runs on his parked car recently.

"Yeah it's pretty bad," one resident said. "It's very busy, very dangerous."

CHP investigators are still searching for leads on the driver who hit Paul Pellandini. All they know now is the vehicle was a Ford truck or SUV with a broken headlight and broken mirror on the right side.

Carol Pellandini has only one request for the person who hit and killed her husband.

"I just wish that they would either come forward and turn themselves in and settle for closure so I know what happened," she said.

Anyone with any information about the incident or the vehicle involved is asked to call the CHP at (916) 338-6710. After hours, call the CHP's communication center at (916) 861-1300.