EDISON – After two weeks of canvassing the Nevsky Street and Park Avenue neighborhood area and using social media for tips after a report of a possible hit-and-run, police have issued traffic summonses in connection with the injuries an 86-year-old township woman sustained while taking a walk on May 1, police said.
A 21-year-old township man was charged with careless driving and failing to report an accident, police Lt. Robert Dudash said, noting during the investigation police were able to locate two passersbys, who included the 21-year-old, who tried to help the injured woman.
“We could not, in good conscience, charge [the man] for hit-and-run driving. Our investigation shows he did not leave the scene. In fact, [the man] was one of the two people who stopped to help this injured woman,” Dudash said. “Once we located him, he was cooperative.”
Police originally believed the incident was a possible hit-and-run incident.
Police said the victim’s family members found her lying on Nevsky Street, being helped by two “good Samaritans” at 8:45 a.m. on May 1. Believing she fell while walking, family members took her home and did not call Edison police to the scene, Dudash said.
“Family members were unaware that one of those good Samaritans at the scene was actually [the man] who apparently stopped to render assistance to the victim,” Dudash said.
The family later took the elderly woman to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick where her doctors found that she had fractured ribs, a collapsed lung and internal injuries, consistent with being hit by a car, police said.
The woman’s family reported the incident at Edison police headquarters on May 3, two days after it happened, Dudash said.
Initially listed in critical condition at the New Brunswick hospital, the 86-year-old victim is now in serious, but stable condition at a private aftercare facility, police said.
