A 54-year-old woman was struck and killed by a vehicle in a hit-and-run crash Saturday evening on Queen Mary Highway near the Market Supermarket on St. Croix, according to the Virgin Islands Police Department.
At approximately 7:17 p.m., officers with the VIPD Traffic Investigation Bureau were dispatched by the Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency’s 911 Call Center to the scene of a reported pedestrian collision. Upon arrival, officers found the victim, later identified by next of kin as Christina Finney, unresponsive on the northern shoulder of the eastbound lane, according to the police report.
Preliminary findings indicate that Finney had been walking along the shoulder of the westbound lane before crossing the highway from south to north. She had then begun walking eastbound in the eastbound lane when she was struck from behind by an unknown vehicle. The impact threw her body approximately 24 feet from the area of initial contact, the police report stated.
After the collision, the driver, described as operating a dark-colored extended cab truck, allegedly exited the vehicle, looked at Finney’s body on the ground, returned to the truck, and fled the scene. No report of the incident was made to 911 or to any police station in the St. Croix district that evening, the report stated.
Emergency medical personnel transported Finney to Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital, where attending emergency room physician Dr. David Fairbanks stated she sustained multiple blunt force injuries and went into cardiac and respiratory arrest. Her time of death was pronounced at approximately 8:31 p.m., according to the report.
The vehicle involved is believed to have sustained damage to the front left side. At this time, the make and model remain unknown, it said.
The case remains under active investigation by the Virgin Islands Police Department’s Traffic Investigation Bureau in the St. Croix District. Anyone with information related to the incident is encouraged to contact authorities.
