Hey, there! Log in / Register
Hunt on for driver who fatally hit Chelsea pedestrian with car, then kept on driving
By adamg on Sun, 06/05/2016 - 12:21pm
Marci Cruz, 25, died this morning after being hit by a car outside 284 Washington St. in Chelsea about 10:15 p.m. last night, Chelsea Police and the Suffolk County District Attorney's office report.
Based on evidence developed through the day by Chelsea and State police investigators, the vehicle involved in last night's fatal hit-and-run is believed to be a 2007-2009 Toyota Camry SE, silver or light gray in color. Unlike most standard Camrys, this vehicle has a moon roof and fog lights. The vehicle is expected to have a broken driver's side headlight and fog light. As the investigation proceeds and detectives provide this information to regional police departments, authorities are asking area auto body shops to be on the lookout for such a vehicle being brought in for repairs of this nature.
Anyone who has information on the crash, the driver, or a similar vehicle with recent, unexplained damage is asked to contact the Suffolk County State Police Detective Unit at 617-727-8817 or Chelsea Police Detectives at 617-466-4805.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Driver should talk with a lawyer immediately
We don't know the circumstances, and I'm not going to speculate and try to judge anyone. But many of the scenarios would make going to the police promptly the best course of action. A lawyer can advise driver on what to do, and how to do it.
Personally, I hope that the driver will feel honor-bound to go to the police, besides any other reasons.
Condolences to family and friends of the victim of this tragedy.
Yes, of Course
When the driver finds a lawyer and explains how he hit someone so hard as to cause front-end damage to the car but didn't see any reason to stop I'm SURE the lawyer will do the right thing and encourage him to stand up for his actions and accept all the charges for ending another person's life. Furthermore, the lawyer will also encourage the assailant to make amends to the victim's family and friends who must be devastated by the loss, perhaps financially as well as emotionally.
There is no chance the driver didn't know he hit someone and simply continued driving safely, following all traffic laws to his destination as he always does.
I didn't think I had to say it
A lawyer won't be concerned with the driver's honor. But I think there's a good chance that the driver will be identified, even if they don't come forward themselves. A lawyer will consider that possibility, and advise appropriately.
Welcome to Boston
The line from "hit-and-run death occurs" to "driver is identified" to "driver is punished" in this state usually isn't nearly as cut-and-dried as a reasonable person might expect.
Welcome to Chelsea
Michael, Chelsea is not a neighborhood in Boston, it's a city in its own right.
from Wikipedia:
Just so you know.
You're speculating
Can we learn not to do that, on a matter like this?
You'd be surprised
Drivers can be oblivious to an amazing degree. I am thinking of an incident some years ago, when a drunk rear-ended a motorcycle that was stopped at a red light. Killed both people on the bike, and continued driving for five miles with the bike embedded in the grille of his car, until the cops stopped him. He didn't know he'd hit anything. I remember it because I had the same bike.
So he claimed
What?!?
The driver in question didn't know that he'd hit anything or anybody? Frankly, I find that hard to believe. When you hit something in your car, you know it!
OK
You don't believe in lost weekends or drunks' memory blanks, then? Check out an AA meeting sometime.
I still have a hard time believing that even a drunk driver
wouldn't be aware that he or she hit something or somebody, unless, maybe they were so intoxicated that they fell asleep at the wheel! Had the latter occurred, however, the driver, too, would probably be killed.
'Dat sweet sweet Homeland Securty money
I'm still very puzzled that in [[CURRENT YEAR]] we have traffic cams that produce footage looking like someone schmeared petroleum jelly onto a lens of a $25 baby-cam.
Did the federal government _not_ provide cities/towns with millions of funbucks to install decent surveillance equipment? The DHS grants were bountiful--where has that money gone? If you can't resolve a hit-and-run, how are you going to resolve a terrorist attack? This reminds me of that awful sexual assault in Coolidge Corner a few years back where the offenders' car was identified and photographed, but you could not make out the license plate and tracking the perps down took a few weeks.
If the argument ameliorating invasion of privacy is the promise of "security," I'm having a hard time seeing the results of that "security" here.
As others have stated before
the issue has nothing to do with the paranoid "no Big Brother" types, nothing to do with the cameras, but is everything to do with the recording equipment. Especially when trying to capture a still image from a video recording.
Nearly all the fancy tech you see on shows like Law and Order and CSI, where the lab guy can magically zoom in and immediately get a crystal clear image of a taxi number, license plate, or suspect's face is pure fiction created by Hollywood.
Plus, for all we know, this image may have come from a private security camera that happened to be pointed at the street.
Different location
Just to clarify, the camera is in a different location from where the hit and run occurred. It occurred near 284 Washington Ave, where there is no crosswalk.
I work with hi-tech
I work with hi-tech surveillance cameras and let me tell you that unfortunately it's not as simple as installing higher-res cameras. First, the good ones are expensive, so departments aren't ready to spend ~$800 on each. Second, they produce much more data, so now you're looking at upgrading your network infrastructure AND storage capacity. Third, even the 1280x960 night-sensitive camera I have here wouldn't be able to resolve the license plate at that distance. Surprisingly enough, the sensor in the higher-res 1920x1080 version I'm also using is less sensitive at night and produces much more noise.
Now, add to that poor lighting conditions and motion blur... The only thing that would've worked here would have been a telephoto license plate reader with standalone illumination, but those are not only 10x expensive and require special setup, they open up all kinds of issues with privacy, etc.
Unlike most standard Camrys,
Funny. Everyone I've ever known who's owned a Camry had one with a moon roof and fog lamps. Perhaps somebody should tell State and Chelsea police that this is no longer the 1970s - when you had to custom order most accessories, and introduce them to a novel concept car companies use these days called "trim levels".
Oh, boy -- anecdata!
I got some: My wife bought 1997 Camry new, and drove it until she bought a 2012 one. Neither one had fog lights or any kind of fancy roof. By "standard," I think they mean base-level.
My point was that Camrys with moon roofs and fog lamps
are hardly uncommon. So stating "Unlike most standard Camrys" is inaccurate. Also, for the purpose of locating a model of vehicle that's quite common, it's pointless. What's wrong with stating "The suspect vehicle, believed to be a Toyota Camry with moon roof and fog lamps" instead?
They're Not Standard Accessories — Many Camrys Don't Have Them
I didn't say standard
I said not uncommon. Big difference in meaning. As validated by my observations of Camrys on the road. Also, I was briefly considering a later model Camry when shopping for a car three years ago - very hard pressed to find one without a moon roof.
My question is
Were you looking at Camrys with automatic transmissions? Perhaps they were saying that one doesn't see the package on cars with standard transmissions?
If you keep this up, I'm
If you keep this up, I'm going to have to count all the Camrys in my neighborhood with and without moonroofs and fog lights.
Video of the car posted by Chelsea Police
Here is a link to the video of the suspect vehicle taken by a surveillance camera after the crash at a different location. There was no crosswalk at the crash scene. The driver might be medium-dark skinned wearing a white shirt with some sort of graphic.
The Camera appears to be located at the intersection of Washington Ave. and Lash Street. This is on the other side of Rt.1 and Revere Beach Parkway from where the crash occurred.
https://twitter.com/ChiefKyes/status/739490538567684096/video/1
So there's no chance that's a
So there's no chance that's a Lexus ES, huh?