A USPS truck hit-and-run in Midtown left a 66-year-old man dead early Saturday, as New York City police investigated two fatal pedestrian crashes overnight. Detectives were searching for the driver after the man was struck while crossing Ninth Avenue near West 55th Street around 5:30 a.m., then left in the street as the vehicle kept going.
Police said the victim was crossing mid-block when the vehicle hit him without stopping. He was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Sources said the vehicle involved was a U.S. Postal Service mail truck, and investigators were working to identify and locate the driver. The case immediately raised questions about accountability in a city where pedestrian safety remains a daily concern.
About an hour and a half earlier, another man died in a separate hit-and-run in the Bronx. That victim, believed to be in his late 50s, had been assaulted roughly 10 minutes before he was struck near College Avenue and East 166th Street in Morrisania, according to sources. He was lying in the roadway, likely knocked out from the earlier fight, when a white BMW SUV ran over him around 3:55 a.m.
The BMW driver also failed to remain at the scene, and police said investigators were still looking for that person as well. The Bronx crash became even more tragic when the man was hit a second time, this time by an NYPD vehicle whose operator did not see him in the road. Police said the patrol car was not chasing the BMW.
