Woman Killed After Pickup Truck Barrels Into NJ Farmers' Market

HAWTHORNE, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- One person was killed and several others were injured when a pickup truck plowed into a farmers' market in Hawthorne, N.J. Sunday afternoon.

As CBS 2's Jessica Schneider reported, a driver of a red pickup truck barreled through barricades set up at Jefferson Place & Grand Avenue just as the farmers' market was ending at around 2:15 p.m.

Hawthorne Mayor Richard Goldberg said the driver hit two people after going through the barricades and kept going, eventually hitting another woman who became stuck under the truck, 1010 WINS' Derricke Dennis reported.

"I heard the truck coming through the barricades, I heard crashing and I heard screaming," vendor Jamie Borelli told Schneider.

The driver then allegedly dragged the woman for several blocks -- an estimated half-mile -- before coming to a stop, Dennis reported. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver of the pickup is in police custody, Dennis reported.

Officials said there were no obvious signs of alcohol or drugs, but the driver was being tested by police, Schneider reported.

One of the victims who was struck by the truck, 21-year-old Bailey Hildebrant, returned to the farmers' market after being released from the hospital.

She told Dennis she was working at her family's stand when the speeding red truck came through.

"Just briefly the red truck coming at us, and then tomatoes flying up in the air and then I was in the ambulance on my way to the hospital," she said of the ordeal.

A table collapsed on Hildebrant, injuring her foot, WCBS 880's Jim Smith reported.

Still in hospital scrubs and wearing a medical bracelet, Hildebrant said she's going to be OK.

"I'm OK, I'm like absolutely fine," she said. "I mean I'm going to be back here, right? So I'm going to re-live it every single time, I might as well come back and see what happened."

Hildebrant told Schneider she keeps revisiting the incident in her mind, trying to think of what she could have done differently.

"I just saw hi too late. I'm just happy I'm OK," she said.

Witnesses said the incident was a horrible sight, leaving many shaken.

Blythe Roth said the truck blew right by her bakery stand, "And I ran after it, I don't know why. I just ran and screamed 'stop, stop, stop!'

Goldberg said he can't imagine a driver wouldn't know that he hit pedestrians and dragged a woman for such a distance, Dennis reported.

"Unthinkable that you could drag someone that far and not realize that you've done something," he said.

"I just want to know why he didn't stop," Hildebrant said. "The barriers are all there and you can obviously see the tents!"

The mayor said the only saving grace in this sad situation was that since the farmers' market was wrapping up for the day, there weren't nearly as many people in the area as there were earlier in the day, Dennis reported.

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