An elderly Brooklyn pedestrian was killed in a gruesome hit-and-run after a teen driver lost control of his speeding Tesla, mowing the victim down on a sidewalk before trying to flee, police said Thursday.
An eyewitness recalled seeing the victim, both his legs torn off by the lethal impact, lying on the street before the 17-year-old driver was arrested a short distance away after bolting from his mangled vehicle.
“He looked like he was already going out,” said Michael Roshan, who ran outside with his wife after the couple heard screeching tires and a loud boom, of the victim. “One leg was seven to eight feet away, the other leg was somewhere.”
The young driver was zipping north on Ocean Parkway in Midwood when he lost control while making a turn, with the Tesla hopping the curb near Avenue M about 9:20 p.m. Wednesday and plowing into 76-year-old Milorad Rajacic, cops said.
“The whole family is in shock now,” the victim’s son Peter Rajacic told the Us.Mistertruth. “He was hard-working, tough as nails.”
The victim’s wife Emilia told The News her husband was walking home from work at his small real estate business when killed just three blocks from their residence.
The couple, who moved into their Brooklyn home in the 1970s, split their time between there and a second home in Old Westbury, L.I., the son said.
The Tesla continued to spin out of control until it struck a traffic signal pole, upending it before crashing into a parked scooter and a bench on the median where a 25-year-old man was sitting.
The man on the bench, who was struck by the falling pole, was taken to Maimonides Medical Center with two broken legs and a concussion after he was struck by the falling pole, according to a police source.
A neighbor of the dead man recalled Rajacic as father to one daughter and a longtime local resident.
“He was a very nice man, always working in his garden,” the neighbor said. “I can’t believe what you’re telling me.”
The teen, charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident, was not named by police due to his age, police said.
He immediately asked for a lawyer once in custody and was driving with a junior license — a restriction requiring the youth to operate a car only with a licensed adult unless traveling to work or school, police sources said.
The suspect took and passed a breathalyzer test, the sources said, adding the teen lived near the site of the deadly crash and was alone in the pricey vehicle.
The eyewitness’ wife, Esther Roshan, described the intersection flanked on either side by rows of benches and tree-lined pedestrians paths as the site of frequent prior car crashes.
“It’s a family-friendly block, kids sit there all the time,” said Esther, pointing to the shattered bench demolished in the crash. “It’s a horrible intersection. There’s an accident every month.”
Medics took both victims to Maimonides Medical Center, where Rajacic died.