Lindenhurst Woman 3rd Person In Family To Be Struck, Killed By Car
LINDENHURST, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Police are searching for a driver in a deadly hit-and-run crash as a Long Island family copes with a third tragedy in two years.
Pauline Aluska, 54, was killed overnight by a hit-and-run driver that struck her as she crossed Montauk Highway at South 13th Street in Lindenhurst and left her for dead, CBS2's Jennifer McLogan reported.
Doctors at Good Samaritan Hospital were unable to save Aluska's life, police said.
"If you have a heart, have a soul, turn yourself in," Aluska's brother, Kenneth, said.
The victim was the sister-in-law of Diane Aluska, a mother who died after being struck by a car on Wellwood Avenue on Mother's Day. Diane Aluska and her daughter were just leaving Mass when an elderly driver lost control and jumped the curb.
Pauline Aluska's brother, John, was also killed in an unsolved hit-and-run crash just feet from where Pauline was struck, Suffolk County police said.
Kenneth, Diane's widower, said his sister was visiting their brother's roadside memorial when she was killed.
"What do you do? What do you say? There are no words to describe it," Kenneth said. "I have the determination to go on, the love of my kids."
He is pleading with the driver to come forward.
Monday's hit-and-run occurred just steps from where 18-year-old Brittney Walsh was killed by a drunken driver in 2012.
Residents say they're still waiting on a traffic light that's been promised.
"Maybe it could have saved this woman's life, maybe it could have, no one will ever know," homeowner Domenic Roseto said. "It's a danger zone, just one big danger zone here."
"Where's the traffic light? It's supposed to be coming soon, we need it. We really need it because everyone speeds so fast," homeowner Mary Jane Stoker said.
Police are poring over surveillance video and will release more information soon on the vehicle involved in the hit-and-run crash.
The state DOT says it's in the process of installing a traffic light on South 13th and Montauk Highway.