Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised the following article contains the name of a person who has died.
Northern Territory Police have charged a man over the fatal hit-and-run death of an Aboriginal woman, seven days after she died in Darwin.
The 27-year-old woman was killed on December 27 after being struck by a vehicle on Bagot Road, near the intersection with Nemarluk Drive, in Ludmilla.
She was found by a passerby with emergency services were called at about 1:20am, however she died before they arrived.
On Friday, police charged a 61-year-old man with one count of hit-and-run causing death.
Police said the charge followed an "extensive investigation coordinated by the Major Crash Investigation Unit," which included reviewing CCTV footage, examining the crime scene, conducting forensic analysis and making witness enquiries.
Senior Constable Craig Tregea said anyone involved in a traffic accident is "legally required to stop, render assistance where possible, and notify police".
"Failing to do so can have serious legal consequences, particularly where a person is injured or killed," he said.
Under Northern Territory law, the maximum penalty for hit-and-run causing death is 10 years' imprisonment.
The area where the woman died had been left unlit after a light pole was damaged in a previous crash and was never repaired, according to Acting Assistant Commissioner Peter Malley.
"There was a previous crash that took out a light pole, and the lights along Bagot were not on," he said last month.
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The Northern Territory has the highest rate of pedestrian deaths in Australia, with Indigenous people disproportionately affected. Data shows about a quarter of drivers involved in pedestrian crashes fail to stop and render assistance.
In 2023 alone, three pedestrians were fatally struck on Bagot Road.
Last year, Darwin man Jake Danby, 24, was sentenced to a 12-month community corrections order — including five months of home detention — after pleading guilty to hit-and-run driving causing the death of a 39-year-old Aboriginal man, referred to as Mr Whitehurst for cultural reasons.
The Northern Territory Director of Public Prosecutions has since appealed the "manifestly inadequate" sentence.
