Cops are searching for the hit-and-run driver who ran down a woman near the Brooklyn-Queens border last month, the NYPD said on Saturday — two days after the victim died of her injuries.
Police say the driver of a gray, 2014 or 2015 Hyundai Sonata with broken driver's-side mirror hit Vabita Arjune, 50, as she was trying to cross Liberty Avenue at Crescent Street at around 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 28 and then fled.
Arjune died on Nov. 7, but cops waited until Saturday night to issue the request for media assistance that identified the apparent perpetrator's vehicle.
Police offered no details about the driver. But it is important to note that current law incentivizes drunk drivers to flee the scene of a crash because if he or she is arrested days later, the driver will not face the harsher penalty of driving while drunk because it will be impossible to prove the inebriation. The charge for fleeing the scene of a crash that results in injuries is lower than causing a crash while drunk. Law enforcement authorities have long called for fixing this loophole.
The intersection of Crescent Street and Liberty Avenue is shockingly dangerous. Last year alone, there were 16 crashes there alone. In the 75th Precinct last year, there were 5,938 total crashes, injuring 98 cyclists, 302 pedestrians and 1,679 motorists — an epidemic of road carnage that has continued this year at almost exactly the same rate, according to city statistics.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Crime Stoppers Hotline at (800) 577-8477 (TIPS) or 888-577-4782 for Spanish. Tips are also accepted at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com. The NYPD says the identify of callers is kept confidential.
