Search Continues For Driver In Deadly Brooklyn Hit-And-Run
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police are still searching for a driver accused of killing a woman in a hit-and-run crash in Brooklyn.
Police identified the victim Thursday as 66-year-old Sofiya Ostrovskaya.
Around 7:15 p.m. Wednesday, investigators said she was crossing Cropsey Avenue near Bay 35th Street in Bath Beach when a speeding car blew through the intersection.
The car's bumper hit Ostrovskaya, sending her into the air before she hit the road, police said. The driver then fled the scene, police said.
"I saw a bunch of blood on the floor and I saw a lady inside the ambulance," said nearby resident Mike Cerillo. "He's a low-life. How could you leave anybody on the street to die?"
Ostrovskaya was taken to Lutheran Hospital where she was pronounced dead. Authorities are now looking for a black Nissan with front-end damage.
"The lady was 66-years-old, my mother is 73, so it makes me think of her crossing the street, that if, God forbid, something like that could happen to her," Cerillo told 1010 WINS' Glenn Schuck.
Shela Blokh said she cannot believe her longtime friend and neighbor is gone.
"I cannot even imagine," Blokh said. "She's very much liked by everybody. She's filled with love and life."
Residents said the area is prone to accidents, and the city clearly knows it since workers recently put up a speed camera in addition to a traffic signal near the scene.
"People have to slow down," Bath Beach resident Brad Blum said.
"The people they drive like crazy," one woman said.
On Thursday morning, a city transportation department worker surveyed the intersection, and police were also keeping watch and pulling drivers over.
Police said Ostrovskaya wasn't the only pedestrian killed in the neighborhood Wednesday night.
A few hours later, police said 61-year-old John Saldiran was trying to cross Bay Parkway mid-block when he was hit by a vehicle. He was taken to Coney Island Hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
The 22-year-old driver remained on the scene and was later taken into custody, police said.
The two pedestrian deaths came days after Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke at an event to raise awareness and remember those injured or killed in traffic collisions.
More than a dozen pedestrians have died on city streets since Halloween.