NYPD searching for 2 women following hit-and-run in Bronx that killed car wash worker
NEW YORK -- A car wash employee was struck and killed in the middle of his shift early Sunday morning.
The search is underway for the hit-and-run driver responsible.
The crash happened in the Councourse Village section of the Bronx. Police have now identified the victim.
An employee is seen on video drying off a car at the 24-hour car wash on Webster Avenue at around 5:30 a.m., when a Ford Escape with Georgia plates veers into the bus lane and hits a Toyota RAV4, pinning the worker in between.
The employee, who police identified as 47-year-old Felix Thomas Bontia, didn't survive.
His co-workers and friends called him Benito Felix.
"We called him Benito, Benito," co-worker Muhammad Folego said.
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CBS2 learned the victim was a father, with family in the city and back home in Mexico, and that he worked at the car wash for about a year.
Police say two women, the driver and a front-seat passenger of that ford Ford Escape, drove a short distance after the crash and then fled on foot. The driver in the RAV4 that was struck was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
"It's crazy how these people don't even have the morals to even slow down or stop to see what they might've hit because I'm pretty sure if you hit a person, you would know," a Bronx resident named Jimmy said.
CBS2 saw some cars on or near the bus lane getting dried off, but some drivers said they pull to the left side when drying their car to avoid the traffic.
"Even the sidewalk, I try to avoid people and don't go on the bus lane," said Ali Djaranabi of Harlem.
After the tragic hit-and-run, a car wash employee named Alfonso said in Spanish, "I'm not scared. I'm just careful because it's dangerous."
The NYPD's Highway Collision Investigation Squad is investigating.