A truck driver has been sentenced to four years in prison after fleeing the scene of a fatal crash in New Jersey last year.
The accident happened on June 4th, 2020 on Route 95 in Fort Lee, New Jersey at around 10:30 p.m.
According to The Daily Voice, 21-year-old motorist Jada Smith got into an accident in the southbound lanes of Route 95 and got out of her car to call her family, who was following in a separate car some distance behind. As Smith was standing in the road on her phone, she was struck by a semi truck driven by 39-year-old Joel Lasanta. Lasanta then fled the scene, and Smith was pronounced dead less than a half-hour later.
Police searched for Lasanta for two days before finding him at the Clara Barton Service Area on the New Jersey Turnpike – 115 miles from the site of the crash.
Lasanta has since accepted a plea-deal rather than face trial, and has pleaded guilty to a second-degree charge of leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident resulting in death. He is being held at the Bergen County Jail pending his assignment to a state correctional facility.
