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Woman killed in Holmesburg hit-run

A tragedy unfolded tonight on a busy Holmesburg street, a crash that will change one family's Christmases forever.

About 5:18 p.m., a woman, whose identity hasn't been released, was struck by a tow truck as she crossed State Road near Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, police said. Investigators believe the victim is 45.

Linda Alfonsi, of Cherry Hill, N.J., was heading home from work when she saw the black tow truck barrel into the woman as she was crossing State Road. The truck didn't even slow down as it sped past.

"One second she was there, then the next...she was gone," a tearful Alfonsi told the Daily News.

She said the truck hit the victim so hard, her purse and glasses went flying, striking Alfonsi's Mitsubishi SUV hard enough to dislodge her EZpass.

"I threw my car in park and got out, trying to do whatever I could, " she said.

Alfonsi and other witnesses told investigators that the woman was trying to cross the road about 75 feet outside of the crosswalk, Chief Inspector Scott Small said.

Medics took the woman to Aria Health's Torresdale hospital with severe head and chest trauma, Small said. She was pronounced dead about an hour later.

As investigators surveyed the scene, debris still littered that stretch of State Road, a busy intersection that was packed with rush hour traffic when the crash took place.

The woman's glasses and purse laid near where her body fell, surrounded by shattered glass and other parts of the fleeing truck.

Alfonsi said the damage from the impact was severe, and that there's no way the driver didn't know he had hit someone.

"What he did to that woman is a sin," she said.

It's unclear if the victim is an employee of the correctional facility, but Small noted that she wasn't wearing a correctional officer's uniform at the time of the crash.

There was no other information available on the truck, Small said.

Tipsters are asked to contact police at 215-686-8477.