Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
Carnage

Cops Say They’ve Arrested the ‘Ghost Truck’ Driver Who Killed a 5-Year-Old

The moment of impact.

Police say they have arrested the plate-less pickup truck driver who ran over and killed a 5-year-old boy in Queens earlier this month.

According to cops, Xavier Carchipull, 40, struck Jonathan Martinez with his 2018 Dodge Ram 1500 on Sept. 1 as he made a reckless turn from McIntosh Street onto 100th Street. Carchipull, who lives about three miles away in Astoria, peeled out and fled as EMTs tried to save Martinez's life. He died at Elmhurst Hospital hours later.

Carchipull was charged on Thursday with leaving the scene and operating the truck without a license, inspection, insurance or registration. The felony charge of leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death carries a top sentence of seven years.

Video from the scene showed that Carchipull's assault truck had a paper plate, which, given the charges, cops assert was fabricated or expired.

When he was struck, Martinez was killed less than a block from P.S. 127. As Streetsblog reported earlier this year, streets around schools tend to see higher levels of traffic violence, which disproportionately impacts students of color.

Very few hit-and-run drivers are ever caught in New York. In 2020 (the last full year for which there is full data), there were 39,299 hit-and-run crashes involving injuries or damage to property. Cops arrested just 351 people, or 0.8 percent of the cases. Police are better at solving hit-and-run crashes that cause serious injuries, though there are fewer of those. In 2021, there were 93 such crashes, and cops ended up making 24 arrests, or just over 25 percent of the time.

Jonathan is one of 74 pedestrians killed this year, according to the Department of Transportation. Perhaps more tellingly, injuries to pedestrians are up roughly 20 percent from last year, according to the NYPD. Between Jan. 1 and Aug. 31, 5,474 pedestrians have been injured in crashes, up from 4,421 over the same period last year.

Chart: DOT
Chart: DOT
Chart: DOT

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

Pressure’s on Hochul As Legislative Budget Proposals Don’t Fund MTA Capital Plan

"The clock is ticking" for Gov. Hochul to come up with a way to fund the next MTA capital — or start to pay the price in delayed projects.

March 12, 2025

Wednesday’s Headlines: FOIL’ed Again Edition

How many Department of Transportation officials does it take to not answer reporters' Freedom of Information Law requests? (Sixteen!) Plus other news.

March 12, 2025

Data: Congestion Pricing is Not Rerouting Traffic to Other Boroughs

Traffic on four outerborough bridges dropped in February — defying MTA forecasts for increased through-traffic around the congestion relief zone.

March 12, 2025

Cross-Bronx Cap ‘Potentially Feasible’ — But Expensive: Report

Here's a plan for a highway that isn't a scar. Now all we need is the money.

March 11, 2025
See all posts