FATAL HIT-AND-RUN LEAVES CYCLIST DEAD.

Byline: Daily News

PALMDALE -- Deputies searched for a damaged vehicle driven by a motorist who hit a bicyclist Thanksgiving night and left him dying on a dark two-lane road.

Authorities are also trying to identify the dead bicyclist, who appears to be a Latino man in his 30s.

``The driver left the scene without notifying authorities, and the Sheriff's Department is searching for the vehicle based on physical evidence left at the scene,'' Detective Mike Redding said.

The bicyclist had been riding without lights about 9:40 p.m. Thursday east along Avenue T near 65th Street East, where the road passes between gravel quarries, deputies said.

The bicycle was hit by a vehicle apparently also traveling east, knocking the rider onto the road's south dirt shoulder, deputies said.

The bicyclist was pronounced dead at the scene.

The collision occurred in an area where there are no streetlights and deputies don't know where the bicyclist was riding in the roadway when he was hit.

Redding said anyone who saw the bicyclist riding in the area or who has other information about the collision is asked to call the Palmdale sheriff's station traffic detail at [phone].