A woman was killed at a NJ farmer's market yesterday when, WCBS 2 reports, a truck driver plowed "through a barricade and hit three people, including a woman who was dragged three blocks." Now the driver has been charged with vehicular homicide.
Vendors at the farmer's market in Hawthorne were getting ready to close (they end operations at 2 p.m.) when James Woetzel, 48, barreled his pickup truck into the area. One vendor, Bailey Hildebrandt, was hit by Woetzel and said, "I hit the ground and just saw tomatoes flying up through the air... I just want to know why he didn’t stop. The barriers are all there and you can see the tents." She suffered minor injuries and feels lucky she's okay.
And Blythe Roth told the NJ.com that Woetzel would not stop, "I screamed and I ran after the car and I was just yelling stop, stop, stop, and they just kept going."
The victim was trapped under the truck; one witness said, "You could hear her screaming/ Everyone was calling 911. It was frantic." The victim, believed to be a Hawthorn resident in her 60s, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Woetzel was charged with vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident which resulted in death, and is being held on $200,000 bail. According to NJ.com, the driver was "visibly upset."
