Loved ones are mourning a husband and wife who were killed by a hit-and-run driver during a chain reaction crash in Bustleton over the weekend. NBC10 speaks with the grieving family as police search for the suspect.
What to Know
- Carmen Ruiz, 48, and her husband, Juan Lopez Rivera, 50, were killed in a multi-vehicle, hit-and-run crash in Bustleton late Saturday.
- Police say a driver struck one vehicle, then struck the couple's, which set off a chain-reaction crash involving three more vehicles.
- The driver was then picked up by another vehicle which fled the scene, police said.
Loved ones are mourning a husband and wife who were killed by a hit-and-run driver during a multi-vehicle, chain-reaction crash in Philadelphia’s Bustleton neighborhood.
Carmen Ruiz, 48, and her husband, Juan Lopez Rivera, 50, were inside a 2005 Mitsubishi Endeavor traveling on Bustleton Avenue and Red Lion Road Saturday, shortly before midnight.
At the same time, the driver of a 2019 Chevy Camaro was speeding down Bustleton Avenue and crashed into a 2010 Lexus that was stopped at a red light. The driver tried to speed away but then collided with the couple’s Endeavor, setting off a chain-reaction crash involving three more vehicles, police said.
The driver of the Camaro then left his vehicle and was picked up by a white Lexus which fled the scene, according to investigators.
Ruiz and Rivera both died from their injuries. Five people in the other vehicles, including two children, had non-life-threatening injuries.
“They was the best,” Ruiz’s sister, Veronica Navarro, told NBC10. “They was wonderful people. Innocent.”
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Rivera worked as a handyman for a family business. Family members showed NBC10 video of Ruiz and Rivera dancing at a relative’s birthday party hours before the deadly crash. They said they knew there was a problem when the couple didn’t return their text messages.
Investigators described the hit-and-run driver as a man with a dark complexion in his early 20's wearing a black suit and white shirt.
“Come and say you’re story. At least, ‘I’m sorry.’ I lost my parents,” the couple’s daughter, Cynthia Lopez, said. “They were my life.”
If you have any information on the hit-and-run or the suspect, please call Philadelphia Police.
