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Pedestrian Dead and 2 Injured in Woodside After Drunk Driver Plows Into Several Cars

Broadway and 60th Street in Woodside (Google Maps)

Dec. 16, 2019 By Allie Griffin

A hit-and-run driver fatally struck a pedestrian in Woodside Wednesday after blowing through a red light while drunk, according to police.

The driver, 50-year-old Jorge Samaniego of Maspeth, then fled the scene after hitting the pedestrian on Broadway at 60th Street at around 8 p.m. While fleeing, he collided with a car at 61st Street and Broadway–after running yet another red light. That collision led to a four-car pile up, injuring two more people, police said.

Samaniego faces a litany of charges including assault, aggravated vehicular assault, aggravated driving while intoxicated, reckless driving, motor vehicle failure to yield to a pedestrian/bicyclist, leaving the scene of an accident, and running a red light.

The pedestrian killed was 47-year-old Alberto Zamacona from Woodside. His death was just one of a series of crashes.

Samaniego initially had a collision at Broadway and 55th Street. While fleeing that incident, he hit Zamacona while traveling eastbound on Broadway near 60th Street, police said.

Police said Zamacona was crossing within the crosswalk–with the pedestrian signal–when he was struck. Zamacona mounted the hood of the car before falling to the pavement.

Samaniego continued eastbound on Broadway. He crossed into the lanes in the opposite direction, ran another red light at 61st Street and struck a 2013 Toyota Prius, which was stopped at the light.

The Prius was pushed backwards into a 2015 Toyota Sienna which in turn struck a 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee, police said.

The reckless driving rampage left pedestrian Zamacona lying on the roadway with severe head trauma. EMS rushed him to NYC Health and Hospitals/Elmhurst, where he died two days later on Friday, Dec. 13.

The drivers of the Toyota Prius and the Toyota Sienna were also taken to NYC Health and Hospitals/Elmhurst in stable condition, where they were treated and released.

Police arrested Samaniego at the scene of the four-car pile up.

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23 Comments

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David

@A-I saw nothing in Mac’s post about playing victim, Do you normally read things into simple two subject posts? Are you saying Trump didn’t beat veterans how of millions, which a court has determined he did or are you saying it was ok for Trump to rob the veterans since you “feel” DeBozo is corrupt?

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Sara Ross

A- What argument did Mac lay out. Mac merely made a suggestion and pointed out an indisputable fact, no argument. Oh by the way,The highest crime in the nation by state,according to FBI statistics, are Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and South Carolina US census data reveals the 10 poorest states : Mississippi, Arkansas, West Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Montana, Kentucky, Alabama, North Carolina and Louisiana. Almost all have common denominator of being “Red States”. Also According to Forbes Magazine a Republican Contributor no less, Maryland , Connecticut, New Jersey. New Hampshire, Alaska, Massachusetts, Virginia ,Hawaii, Delaware and California. We see you’re Fox informed target California you’ve obviously never been to California… You obviously like to pick out “cherry pick” your data to suit you. cities are subsets of states.

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A

Sorry Mac. Your argument doesn’t work. Look at poop covered California, and thousands of shootings in Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit. You’re allowed to legally pee in the streets now in NYC. People like you love playing victim and blaming capitalism but you are probably using a nice cell phone to complain about it. Fact is there needs to be balance. NYC is way too far left now. We already have a corrupt rich white guy and it’s the mayor who embezzled 1.8 billion with his wife.

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Sara Ross

@Aboondy and #vivadeblasio ( you’re one and the same, you’re not fooling anyone- Criminals are huge part of Republican Matt Bevins agenda he’s pardoned child jokesters and even a man who chopped off a woman’s head. Don’t forget the good Republicans who have been hiring illegal aliens for decades.

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Sara Ross

Vivadeblasio- Liberals love criminals and Republicans are criminals. Like President Trump. Trump who is guilty of fraud, lying to investigators about Stormy Daniels payoff, illegal demolition, housing discrimination, using illegal Polish laborers and recently Trump the criminal was forced to pay millions of dollars of restitution to veterans, who were defrauded by Trump.

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Tree of liberty

To the hashtag obsessed commenter: Just pointing out a fact that you obviously can’t dispute doesn’t make the person pointing out the fact “obsessed, but constantly posting using hashtags on a site that doesn’t use hashtags, makes you the definition of obsessed.

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Gerald

@ Barbara Judge – WRONG! There are several more people that are hit by cars rather than bicycles. Where do you get your stats? Just do a google search and you’ll see many, many more cars hit people than bicycles.

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#vivadeblasio

No; he should be given a driver’s license and a voucher for housing. That’s the liberal way. They love lawbreakers. Viva Deblasio!

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ABoondy

agreed. you are not wrong at all. Criminals are an important demographic for Democrat vote support and are aggressively protected.

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Then why is crime the highest in "tell ya whut" states?

All the republican paradises have the highest crime rates. Oops, how embarrassing for you lmao

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Wait, did the article mention de Blasio?

Note The person that thinks there’s hashtags on this site obsession with de Blasio and de Blasio voters. Not a healthy person.

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Judge Roy Bean

Give that illegal alien/drunk driver a valid NYS drivers license…we don’t want to criminalize these people

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Barbara Judge

But 3,800 is only .005% of NYC’s population. You have a better chance of getting hit by a bike or winning the lotto.

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Mac

A- You can always move to the Republican strongholds of Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi or Arkansas, no crime in any of these places. I guess crime is ok when it’s perpetrated by obese rich white guys like the one in the White House who just got convicted of swindling veterans out of two million dollars.

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Gerald

Anyone who blames bike lanes is a moron! Please show me how in any way this accident was caused by a bike lane? The real problem is all the angry, drunk drivers. Look at any day, any time, you’ll see car drivers plowing into people, and there’s no bicycle or bike lane involved…

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Bike lanes are to blame

Another reckless motorist with deadly results? Well one time I saw a bike run a stop sign.

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I hope the police charge the driver

Vehicular manslaughter, at least. The NYPD let drivers get away with murder all the time.

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A

Deblasio will give him mets tickets though. 3800 inmates to be released next month. Get ready NYC. Keep voting Democrat and watch NYC burn.

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Manuel

If it turns out that the driver is an undocumented immigrant, should he be deported after jail time?

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and what if he's a space alien?!

We should consider every made up scenario you came up with, even though they’re just racist dog whistles that have nothing to do with this story.

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