Juniata Park Uber driver charged in fatal hit-and-run crash in Montgomery County
Investigators say Andy Nunez Vasquez struck Ricardo Baptiste on Sept. 6, but did not stop, render aid, or call police after the crash.
Andy Nunez Vasquez was driving for Uber on Sept. 6 when he struck a man walking along West Germantown Pike in East Norriton, police said Tuesday.
Nunez Vasquez, 47, didn’t stop, didn’t provide aid, and didn’t even call police, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest in the death of Ricardo Baptiste.
But he did, detectives wrote in the affidavit, cancel another Uber ride he had scheduled just before the crash.
Nunez Vasquez, of Juniata Park, has been charged with accidents involving death, failure to stop and render aid, and related crimes.
He was released after posting 10% of $20,000 bail. His attorney could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Baptiste, 29, had just left Jefferson Einstein Montgomery Hospital, a few hundred yards from the crash scene, when he was struck, according to his family. He was being treated at the hospital for an unrelated issue.
The force of the crash with Nunez Vasquez’s Hyundai Sonata pushed Baptiste into the opposite lane of traffic, where he was run over by a tractor trailer that could not stop in time, police said.
Medics transported him to Jefferson Einstein, where he was pronounced dead.
Using surveillance cameras and license-plate readers in the area, detectives were able to identify Nunez Vasquez’s car and trace it back to his home in Juniata Park.
There, they impounded the vehicle and served search warrants on his cell phone and Uber accounts.
Information from both showed he had just dropped a passenger off in West Norriton shortly before the crash, and was on his way to another pickup when he struck Baptiste, the affidavit said.
Nunez Vasquez is scheduled to appear before a district judge for a preliminary hearing on Nov. 2.
