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NYPD Crash Investigations

Police Nab One Half of Hit-and-Run Duo Who Killed Pedestrian in Queens Last Year

Cops cuffed a hit-and-run driver who fatally struck a 68-year-old pedestrian in Queens late last year. The second driver who hit the victim before also fleeing the scene is still on the loose.

This is where the pedestrian was struck twice.

|Google

One of two hit-and-run drivers who hit and killed a pedestrian on a notorious eastern Queens street roadway last month has been arrested, NYPD said — but cops have yet to find the second who left the man dead in the middle of the street. 

Police cuffed Long Island resident Osman Zavala-Varela, 36, for fleeing the scene after fatally striking 68-year-old Gary Charlotin on Hempstead Avenue near 223 Street on Dec. 10.

Police also charged Zavala-Varela with failure to obey a traffic signal, according to the NYPD.

A second driver — who remains unidentified — behind the wheel of a light colored SUV then ran over Charlotin a second time before also taking off on Hempstead Avenue in Queens Village at about 8 p.m.

Charlotin was one of 99 pedestrians to be killed in traffic violence in the five boroughs last year — one of the deadliest in the Vision Zero era, despite a record-low number of pedestrian death — and one of the dozens to be hit by drivers on Hempstead Avenue in 2023. 

A whopping 118 crashes occurred on the short stretch of Hempstead Avenue west of the Cross Island Parkway last year — injuring 50 people, according to city stats. 

The collision remains under investigation, NYPD said.

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