Police on Monday were working to identify a man in his 20s who they said was struck and killed by a dump truck driver in Brooklyn early Saturday as he crouched in the street to pick up food.
NYPD officials said the man was crossing Withers Street near Woodpoint Road in Williamsburg just before 4 a.m. Saturday when he knelt down to pick up what police later determined was food. The driver of a Mack dump truck, who had been traveling north, turned right and hit the man, according to officials. First responders took him to Elmhurst Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police said the driver, a 49-year-old man, left the scene. They have not announced any arrests, and the NYPD’s Highway District’s Collision Investigation Squad was still looking into the incident.
The crash happened on the heels of two other fatal collisions in Brooklyn. In East New York on Thursday afternoon, police said 26-year-old resident Imani Vance died in a crash between a car and a school bus. In Boerum Hill on Friday night, 45-year-old resident Trisha Chiriboga was killed when a driver struck her as she opened her car’s rear door, according to officials.
The driver who allegedly hit Chiriboga stayed on the scene and was not arrested, the NYPD said.
Police arrested 32-year-old Brooklyn resident Tyree Epps in connection with the crash that killed Vance. He was allegedly driving the car in which she was a passenger, and he was charged with manslaughter, leaving the scene of an accident, driving without a license and other related offenses.
Court records show Epps was also arrested for driving without a license in Brooklyn in August. Neither his lawyer in that case nor his lawyer in the current case immediately responded to requests for comment Monday. The New York Daily News reported Vance and Epps may have just met each other and he may have been driving her to her friend’s apartment.
NYPD data shows at least 10 people have died in traffic crashes in Brooklyn so far this year, including last week’s collisions. That number is roughly on pace with the number of traffic deaths in the borough in the same period last year, according to the data.
This story has been updated with additional information.
