Hit-and-run drivers killed two people after the Super Bowl

Hit-and-run drivers killed a 19-year-old and a 32-year-old in two separate crashes in Philadelphia after Sunday’s Super Bowl game.

Less than two hours after the Super Bowl ended, at 11:48 p.m. Sunday, police responded to a report of a fatal crash involving a car and a pedestrian at the 4500 block of Princeton Street, in the city’s Tacony section, police said. Officers learned that the driver of a black GMC truck had hit a 19-year-old man before fleeing.

The victim, who was not identified Monday, was taken in a private car to Nazareth Hospital and pronounced dead less than an hour later.

No arrests had been made.

Less than two hours later, around 1:25 a.m. Monday, police responded toanother fatal crash involving a car and pedestrian at the 6400 block of Buist Avenue, in the Elmwood Park section of the city.

A person was driving a Kia eastbound on Buist Avenue when they hit the 32-year-old man walking in the crosswalk, police said. The driver of the Kia continued eastbound on Buist without stopping.

The Philadelphia Fire Department pronounced the victim dead minutes later at 1:30 a.m.

Car parts were found at the scene and the Kia was later found partially burned at 62nd Streetand Harley Avenue, police said. Police towed the car.

No arrests had been made and the victim was not identified.

The weekend incidents mark at least seven hit-and-runs in as many weeks, six of them fatal, according to police.

The recent spate of hit-and-runs follows a year in which hit-and-run fatalities rose to a record 31, triple that of 2019. Drivers fled the scene in one out of four of 117 fatal car crashes recorded in 2022 to mid-December, police records show.