Two New Jersey women have been pronounced dead after they were struck in a hit-and-run crash while walking home from a World Cup watch party. Mariana Elizabeth Valverde Beltran, 58, and Maria Isabel DeLosAngeles Salgado Ayala, 61, were allegedly hit by David J. Zapata-Vera at an intersection on Saturday night.
The pair were walking across an intersection at Park Avenue and North 7th Street in Newark, reports the New York Post, when a driver sped through a crosswalk and hit both, sending them into the air. The suspect behind the wheel allegedly did not stop the vehicle and instead fled the scene of the crash before police arrived.
Surveillance cameras on the street captured the moment the driver knocked both women down and the horrified reaction of witnesses afterwards. Beltran and Ayala were rushed to University Hospital Newark where they were later pronounced dead.
It’s alleged that 26-year-old Zapata-Vera was behind the wheel of the car and witnesses on the scene claimed that he hit the accelerator on his approach to the crosswalk as the traffic light was in the middle of changing. “I don’t know if he was drunk, but anyway, he put the gas and that’s what happens,” witness Manuel Candelaria stated.
A Newark local told WABC that the intersection where the incident occurred was a hotspot for speeding cars, “It’s very dangerous I usually wait a few seconds even if it turns red, because they speed right through.”
The women’s deaths have left family members traumatized
Relatives of both women have been grieving the sudden passing of their family members with Beltran’s cousin, Jeffrey Chacon, addressing suspect Zapata-Vera. In a statement made to WABC Chacon said, “You have to live with this for the rest of your life. I hope the person is found but also for that person it’s something you have to live with for the rest of your life, it’s on your conscience.”
Unfortunately the incident has left two families with the difficult task of breaking the news to other relatives of the women. “My dad is managing his emotions with trying to contact everyone in Ecuador, her sisters, her son,” Chacon explained.
On Tuesday, three days after the crash that took the women’s lives, Zapata-Vera surrendered himself to police. He was charged with multiple counts, second-degree vehicular homicide (two counts), second-degree leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident resulting in death (two counts), and third-degree endangering an injured victim (two counts).
Zapata-Vera is currently being held in Essex County jail without bond.
