Woman killed by hit-and-run driver while directing traffic around Van Wyck Expressway construction project: NYPD

A 44-year-old Bronx woman was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver as she was directing traffic around a New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) roadside construction project on Friday morning on the Nassau Expressway in South Ozone Park.

Police from the 113th Precinct responded to a 911 call of a pedestrian struck just before 7:30 a.m. in the vicinity of the eastbound Nassau Expressway and the Van Wyck Expressway the northbound Van Wyck Expressway, and they found the construction worker on the roadway. EMS pronounced her dead at the scene.

The victim was identified on Saturday as Isabel Alvarez of Rogers Place in the Longwood section of the Bronx.

A preliminary investigation by the NYPD’s Highway District Collision Investigation Squad determined that Alvarez was flagging traffic in a safety zone between the exit ramp and the eastbound lanes of the Nassau Expressway around the construction area when the unlicensed driver of a white 2018 Infiniti Q50S struck her and kept driving northbound on the Nassau Expressway. Police from the 113th Precinct located the driver a short while later at South Conduit Avenue and 134th Street. He was transported him to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition and treated  for minor injuries to his right hand.

Detectives later arrested 25-year-old Daveanand Budhai, of 115th Street, in South Ozone Park. He was charged with assault, leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, aggravated unlicensed operator, menacing anf other traffic violations, according to the NYPD.

“This morning, a construction worker on our Van Wyck Expressway project in Queens, working for one of our contractors, was killed by a hit-and-run driver while directing traffic,” New York State Department of Transportation Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez said. “I thank our partners at the New York City Police Department for acting quickly to track down and apprehend the suspected driver. The investigation will continue, but our thoughts are now with our fallen colleague, her loved ones, her co-workers and all our New York State DOT team members who are reeling from this tragedy.”

The identity of the victim is pending proper family notification.

“Every day, our workers risk their lives in the name of highway safety,” Dominguez said. “Today’s tragic fatality is a stark reminder to the traveling public to slow down and move over, pay attention, respect work zones, and please, keep all our workers safe.”