STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The driver who was charged with leaving the scene of a fatal crash in New Springville late Sunday night was already facing charges of leaving the scene of a crash in two other incidents in which pedestrians were injured within the past 13 months, police confirmed.
In both other incidents, Hasim Smith, 22, of Eltingville, was allegedly fleeing from police with a suspended license when he lost control of his vehicle and crashed.
In the most recent crash, this February, Smith sent a parked car careening into a 65-year-old woman after he struck the vehicle while fleeing from police in West Brighton, according to Advance archives.
At the time, Smith told police he fled due to his lack of a valid license, cops said.
Officers had tried to pull him over for cell phone use at the corner of Alaska and Wayne streets when he took off, according to a criminal complaint.
In his attempt to escape, Smith lost control on an icy patch of road, hitting a utility pole and a parked car that in turn struck the woman, who was cleaning snow off her car, according to police.
Last June, Smith sent police on a chase after they tried to pull him over for driving without a seatbelt, an NYPD spokesman said. In his attempt to evade the officers, Smith caused a multi-vehicle crash at the intersection of Victory Boulevard and Jersey Street in Tompkinsville in which one person was injured, the spokesman said.
At the time of his 2014 arrest, Smith’s license had been suspended eight times, police said. The New York Department of Motor Vehicles could not immediately confirm how many times his license has been suspended to date, nor whether his license was suspended at the time of Sunday night’s crash.
On Sunday night, Smith was behind the wheel of a silver Mitsubishi that crashed into a pole on Richmond Avenue in New Springville, killing one female passenger and critically injuring another, according to cops.
Police said he lost control while trying to beat a red light at the intersection of Richmond Avenue and Richmond Hill Road around 10:45 p.m., and smashed into a traffic control post in the middle of the intersection.
Both of the car’s passengers, 19-year-old Alize Jorge, of Silver Lake, and 18-year-old Porsha Richardson were found unconscious and unresponsive at the scene of the collision and rushed to Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze.
Jorge was pronounced dead at the hospital, around 11:30 p.m., cops said.
A police spokesman said that alcohol was not believed to have played a role in the crash and that he wasn’t made aware that Smith would face any additional charges.
He’s been arrested a total of 21 times, including Sunday night’s incident, and was one of dozens of suspects arrested in connection with the “Operation Jersey Boys” drug takedown last summer, according to Advance archives. Smith faces charges of third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance and fourth-degree conspiracy in that case.
