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The 38-year-old Fort Lee victim was in the crosswalk as she headed across Broad Avenue when a Honda Pilot turning left from East Homestead Avenue hit her shortly before 11:30 a.m. Sunday, Detective Sgt. Alex Monteleone said.
The Pilot then sped off south on Broad Avenue, leaving her in the middle of the road, he said.
The victim was taken to Englewood Hospital and Medical Center.
Meanwhile, Officers Matthew Carley and Stephen Kim interviewed witnesses at the scene.
A good Samaritan who was among them followed the Honda and gave police the license plate number – as well as where the driver ended up parking about 10 blocks away, Monteleone said.
Carley and Kim went to the Hillside Avenue address in Fort Lee and spoke with the Pilot’s owner, Eulalio G. Castro, 24, after finding the vehicle in the driveway.
Castro “initially denied striking the pedestrian and provided false information to the officers,” the sergeant said. “He later recanted his statements and confessed to the hit and run.”
Detectives charged Castro with hindering apprehension and endangering an injured victim. He was released pending an Aug. 2 hearing in Municipal Court.
Earlier this year, police charged a New Milford driver with the hit-and-run death of another female pedestrian, 53, on Bergen Boulevard, Capt. Shawn Lee noted.
Lee, the officer in charge of the department, commended Carley and Kim for their diligence and professionalism.
He also thanked the good Samaritans who “all rushed to the victim to render aid and prevent her from being struck by another vehicle in a busy roadway,” as well as the one who followed the defendant.
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