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Grinning NJ Truck Driver Arrested For Fatal Hell's Kitchen Hit-And-Run
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 7, 2013
Modified Feb 7, 2013
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Jack Montelbano's Facebook profile photo
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 7, 2013
Modified Feb 7, 2013
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The NYPD has arrested a New Jersey man suspected of running over a 69-year-old Chinese immigrant in Hell's Kitchen on Tuesday afternoon. Bayonne resident Jack Montelbano, 47, was charged with Leaving the Scene of an Accident Resulting in Death. Investigators tracked him down through the license plates on the dump truck he was allegedly driving when Shu Yin Liu had the misfortune of crossing West 41st Street at 9th Avenue.
Liu, who lived with her 101-year-old husband in low income housing on West 54th Street, was walking north across West 41st Street when the dump truck made a right turn and fatally struck her. A police source tells the Times that "at least one witness among the throngs around the scene of the crash told Mr. Montelbano that there had been an accident but he continued driving west."
Montelbano is being held in lieu of $25,000 bail. According to the Post, when he was presented for his bail hearing prosecutor Patricia Collins claimed Montelbano "was involved in a fatal car crash at that same spot several years ago." But it appears he has no criminal record in New York.
As he was escorted to Central Booking, a Post photographer snapped a jarring photo of Mongelbano smiling broadly for the cameras. But his defense lawyer insists, "Everybody reacts to stress and panic in different ways. I can assure you he is absolutely and utterly devastated."
Liu, a mother of two who moved to America 15 years ago, loved to read and dance. Her husband tells the Post, "Oh, she danced day and night."
The horrible incident has spurred calls for safety improvements in the area. The Clinton Hell's Kitchen Coalition for Pedestrian Safety, or CHEKPEDS, tells DNAinfo there have been 46 pedestrians hurt and two pedestrians killed there since 1995, in addition to Tuesday's deadly crash. On Tuesday they sent a letter to the DOT requesting a ban on right turns from Ninth Avenue during non-peak hours, and a blinking yellow turning light urging drivers to slow down.
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hell's kitchen
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Jack Montelbano
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John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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