SUV crashes into car, fatally hits car wash employee before driving off in the Bronx
MORRISANIA, The Bronx (WABC) -- A 24-hour car wash employee in the Bronx was killed in a hit-and-run early Sunday morning.
Police say the driver of an SUV barreled into a car early Sunday morning at the car wash on Webster Avenue between 167th and 168th Streets just before 5:30 a.m. Sunday. The driver of that vehicle was hit and suffered minor injuries, but the car wash employee, identified as Felix Thomas Bontia, 47, who was just wiping down the windows, took the brunt of the impact and was killed.
Police say they are looking tor two women who ditched their banged Ford Escape and ran away after the collision.
Customer Ali Djaranabi says he is uncomfortale with how fast drivers go in the area.
"I feel very sorry for the family," Djaranabi says.
Bontia was taken to Lincoln Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Mohammed, one of Bontia's co-workers, rushed to help. He dialed 911 to try to save Bontia's life after Bontia was pinned between both vehicles and thrown to the ground.
"I can't sleep because I was talking to him a few minutes and that thing happened like that," Mohammed said.
Eyewitness News also spoke to the victim's family over the phone, and they are understandably distraught..
Workers say Bontia has family in the Bronx and in Mexico. He had only been working at the car wash for about a year.
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