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Responding officers immediately began conducting CPR on Mariano Morales-Benitez, 43, of Union City on the darkened stretch of highway in front of a bus stop near Fred Wehran Drive at 5:21 p.m. Tuesday, Moonachie Police Chief Richard Behrens said.
Members of the Little Ferry First Aid Squad then took Morales-Benitez to Hackensack University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 6:03 p.m., the chief said.
"It was an unfortunate accident,” Behrens said. “[He] didn’t go to the crosswalk and tried to cross in the middle of the highway.”
The elderly driver remained at the scene and was cooperative with investigators, he said.
"It wasn't the driver's fault at all," a witness who was waiting for the bus with Morales-Benitez told Daily Voice. "The driver wasn't even going the same speed as the other cars. He was in shock.
"While I was with the police on the phone notifying them about the accident, I saw another person crossing the street the same way," said the Queens woman, who works at Dassault Falcon Jet.
No charges were filed or summonses issued, Behrens said, adding that an investigation was continuing.
His officers were assisted by Little Ferry police, the Bergen County Prosecutor's Fatal Accident Investigations Unit, the Bergen County Sheriff's Bureau of Criminal Identification – which collected evidence – and the New Jersey Department of Transportation, Behrens said.
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