Driver turns himself in
Uninsured, admits fleeing Bx. crash that killed scooter rider
A Bronx driver who admitted he fled the scene of a crash that killed a scooter rider headed home to mom out of fear of getting caught without car insurance, prosecutors revealed Sunday.
Emilio Galvan is accused of driving off and then abandoning his purple Dodge Charger after 35-year-old William Cruz crashed his gas-powered scooter into the muscle car, cops said.
“He had a very big heart,” Cruz’s devastated mom, Griselda Abbas, told the Daily News
Sunday. “He would help older people, bringing groceries and bags. He was so nice and sweet.”
Cruz was zipping south on Park Ave. in Belmont when he crashed into the driver’s side of Galvan’s car, headed east on E. 183rd St., about 7:40 p.m. Friday, cops said. Cruz was on his way from his girlfriend’s home to the Harlem apartment he shared with his mother.
“We felt a boom near the rear driver’s side door,” Galvan told police. “I know something hit me. I didn’t have insurance so we left,” he added, according to the criminal complaint against him.
Galvan, 25, who lives in the Norwood section of the Bronx, admitted going home without ever calling 911.
The next day he tried to retrieve his abandoned car and that’s when cops swooped in and arrested him, authorities said. He’s charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident.
“He made a conscious decision to leave,” Assistant District Attorney Madison Reid said at his Bronx Criminal Court arraignment Sunday.
Judge Jeffrey Rosenbleuth ordered him placed on supervised release to help make sure he returns to court.
“Due to the nature of the events, specifically leaving the scene, it creates a risk of flight,”
Rosenbleuth said.
Cruz bought the scooter about four years ago from someone who sold it to him for a bargain, his mother said. He worked in downtown Manhattan as a clerk in a private building.
“He would sit at the front desk, answer phone calls, check people coming in and out. He would always take the 4 train down to work,” his mother said. “Everybody loved him. The boss loved him. He had a very good job.”
Cruz left behind a throng of friends and loved ones.
“There’s a lot of people who was crying,” his mother said. “A lot of people loved him.”
She described him as having a funny personality, someone who liked cars and liked to dance.
“My heart is broken,” she said. “Most the time he takes the 4 train. … He would ride the scooter to get around but at times he would say, ‘Mommy, I need to buy a car.’ ”
Abbas is still trying to work out what happened. She got spotty information after the crash and didn’t realize her son was at St. Barnabas Hospital until the next day.
“We went to the hospital 6 in the morning the next day and they said we couldn’t see him,” she said. “He passed around 10 o’clock that day. … I wanted to see my son.”