Unlicensed Hit-and-Run Driver Charged for Killing 90-Year-Old in Queens
An unlicensed 25-year-old hit-and-run driver who killed an elderly woman on her Jamaica block on Wednesday morning was charged in the crime, the NYPD said.
Eber Baten, 25, slammed into Isabel Duarte, 90, with his Ford Econoline van as he made a left turn from Jamaica Avenue onto 129th Street, which Duarte was crossing at around 7 a.m.
Baten fled but was later caught, arrested, and charged with leaving the scene of a collision, failure-to-yield, failure to exercise due care, and driving without a license, cops said.
The NYPD’s swift action to apprehend and immediately charge Baten deviates from other recent crashes involving blatantly negligent behavior.
On Saturday, a white pickup truck driver struck and killed 62-year-old Edith Perez at Farrington Street and 31st Road in Flushing. Later in the day, an Academy Bus driver ran over a 73-year-old man on 10th Avenue in Manhattan and fled the scene.
Neither driver faced charges; NYPD would only say that investigations were “ongoing.” The NYPD said the same thing when a pedestrian died Sunday after being hit hours earlier in Chelsea, and in late October, when three more pedestrians were killed.
The NYPD declined to comment on its approach to enforcement.
