Charges have yet to be filed after a high-speed hit-and-run crash that killed a pedestrian and injured three others in Prospect Lefferts Gardens last week.
Witnesses said Daniel Rosado, 40, was hit as two dollar van drivers raced north on Flatbush Avenue near Hawthorne Street just before midnight on Wednesday, September 5, and was thrown into the path of a southbound passenger car.
The Post reports:
“The guy goes flying right under my car, and then the dollar van driver loses control,” said Clinton Messam, 56. "The guy’s body ended up underneath my bumper."
The van slammed into two cars, then a taxi cab -- and the driver then got into the white van he had been racing, which fled on Flatbush Avenue, witnesses said.
"He got in the white van and he got away," said cab driver Shahid Iqbal, 32, of Bensonhurst, who was on his way home when he was hit.
Elizabeth Jollie, 56, had been sitting in the passenger seat of her brother’s Chevy Malibu hybrid when the van plowed into it.
"I saw the van coming in the wrong lane, I said ‘Jesus! Jesus!’ Then the van hit and shook the car," said Jollie. "The lady in the silver car I saw get out of the car and say someone’s underneath. I called 911, I didn’t see the man breathing."
Rosado died at Kings County Hospital.
According to CBS 2, Peterson Bonaventure, 34, was charged with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, but the Daily News reported that charges against Bonaventure were dropped. A spokesperson with the office of Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes told Streetsblog that police are still investigating.
Rosado was at least the third person killed by a driver in Brooklyn's 71st Precinct this year. In July, Christopher Hutchinson was run down outside his home at Sterling Street and Bedford Avenue. Cyclist Emma Blumstein was fatally struck by a truck driver one block away, at Bedford and Empire Boulevard, in June. Jusheem Thorne and an unidentified male pedestrian were killed in March and May, respectively, within a two block stretch of Eastern Parkway, which marks the northern border of the precinct.
As of July, the 71st Precinct had issued 75 speeding tickets in 2012 -- 18 more than were written by precinct officers in all of 2011, when 57 motorists were cited.
To voice your concerns about neighborhood traffic safety directly to Deputy Inspector John Lewis, the commanding officer of the 71st Precinct, go to the next precinct community council meeting. The 71st Precinct council meetings happen at 7:30 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month at M.S. 61, 400 Empire Boulevard. Call the precinct at 718-735-0527 for information.
The City Council district where Daniel Rosado, Christopher Hutchinson and Emma Blumstein were killed is represented by Mathieu Eugene. To encourage Eugene to take action to improve street safety in his district and citywide, contact him at 212-788-7352, mathieu.eugene@council.nyc.gov or @MathieuEugene.
