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Hit-and-Run Driver Surrenders in Concourse Crash; Victim Behind ’91 Subway Crash

By DAVID GREENE 

The driver who had been sought by the NYPD for mowing down a pedestrian along the Grand Concourse surrendered to police as his victim remains in serious but stable condition at St. Barnabas Hospital, according to police.

Police sources say Willesty Rosa, 26, of Bedford Park, gave himself up to police May 30 and has been charged with leaving the scene of an accident. The NYPD has impounded the vehicle, designating it as evidence.

Rosa was allegedly driving northbound on the Grand Concourse near Burnside Avenue when Robert Rey, 61, stepped off the center island at East 182nd Street, when he was run over at 8:45 p.m., on Thursday, May 28. Sources reported Rey suffered severe head trauma and a broken left, with paramedics initially listing him as likely to die.

Rey’s camouflaged baseball cap remained on the roadway 20 feet from where a small pool of blood and discarded medical waste were spotted on the asphalt, where paramedics treated Rey.

Rey’s incident is somewhat of an ironic twist. Police identified Rey as the infamous subway motorman behind the deadly 4 subway train derailment crash at the 14th Street-Union Square station on August 28, 1991. Five passengers died, and roughly 200 commuters were injured.

After the 1991 crash Rey fled the scene and later admitted to drinking alcohol before his shift. Rey was convicted the following year of manslaughter and served ten years of a 15-year sentence.

Police officials could not immediately say if Rosa had any connection to the train crash.

According to statistics released by the NYPD, in the first five months of Vision Zero, 40 pedestrians have died, compared with 45 during the same time period in 2014– when the speed limit was still 30 miles per hour.

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