The new year wasn’t even five hours old when the District recorded its first traffic fatality.

A pedestrian was killed in a hit-and-run in Southeast at 4:17 a.m. after a driver veered off the road while making a left turn, according to D.C. police.

The driver of a silver SUV was traveling down Minnesota Avenue before the car left the road and struck 32 year-old Loleita Patricia Gross, who was on a sidewalk at the intersection of  L’Enfant Square SE, police said. Gross was taken to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

The occupants of the vehicle fled the scene, leaving the car behind, according to police.

There were 27 traffic fatalities in the District in 2019, a decline from recent years. But the count was still higher than 2015, when the city pledged to end traffic fatalities through its Vision Zero program.

“Any fatality is one too many,” District Department of Transportation Director Jeff Marootian told WAMU last year. “I’m pleased to see a reduction, but we still need to work hard to get to zero.”