Police: Hit-and-run driver strikes two women in Kensington

PHILADELPHIA (WTXF) - Police say two women were injured after an SUV slammed into them in Kensington.

It was just before noon at the intersection of Somerset Street and Coral and paramedics were scrambling to save a life. 29-year-old Carmen Sarrano and a 52-year-old Carmen Nicole were mowed down as they tried to cross the intersection.

"Felix"--he declined to give us his last name-- is Sarrano's father and Nicole's boyfriend.

"I can't talk about it," he said. "Too much emotion."

Witnesses tell FOX 29 a young woman driving southbound on Somerset in a dark-colored SUV struck the women, then backed up and peeled out--heading the wrong way down Coral.

"It sounded like another car hit another car that's how loud it was," eyewitness Nancy Cooper said. "So I thought it was-- it was actually a person. Yes, when I came down to the corner, I was like, 'Oh my god they hit a person-- not a car.'"

Another witness who lives down the block shared with police and later FOX 29 photos she took of the SUV seconds after impact. She asked that we not show her face but says the driver clearly knew she had struck the victims.

Police say officers were flagged down by two people on the 2800 block of Richmond St pointing at the vehicle which was believed to be involved in the accident from Coral and Somerset St. After officers stopped the vehicle and conducted their investigation, the 31-year-old female driver of the vehicle was placed under arrest for driving under the Influence and leaving the scene with injuries, according to police.

This intersection sits very near the homeless encampments of heroin users along Lehigh Avenue. Felix says for that reason he has warned his love ones to be careful on the streets around here.