Hilda Arocho lived the American dream, right up until her nightmarish death.
The 82-year-old Bronx great-grandmother died beneath the wheels of a speeding hit-and-run driver’s van just minutes after packing supplies for family members in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico.
“My mother was a very giving person,” her son Jose Vega said Saturday as his eyes welled with tears. “She gave everybody everything. She cared about people.
Driver Alcyto Powell, 50, who lives a mile away from the victim, surrendered to police at 5 a.m. Saturday.
He was charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident.
“I’m glad that he’s going to be brought to justice,” said Vega. “It’s not going to bring her back but at least it’ll bring us some closure.”
The Puerto Rican-born Arocho, one of 16 siblings, left her homeland for New York at the age of just 16.
With only a third-grade education, she landed a seamstress job at a sewing factory — and wound up buying the business, according to family members.
She raised four children, put them all through college, and bought her own home.
“My mother was the embodiment of the American dream,” said daughter Lisbeth Arce, 48. “She didn’t depend on anybody.”
Arce was visiting with her mother shortly before the deadly crash occurred around 9:10 p.m. Friday. Arocho was crossing Pitman Ave. to stop by Lisbeth’s home when she was struck.
Powell climbed out of a white Dodge Enterprise rental van to take a look at the dying woman and make a quick phone call before slipping away Friday night, leaving the van behind, according to one witness.
At Powell’s arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court Saturday, his attorney, Renee Hill, said he ran because he was afraid of being attacked by the crowd that was forming. He was held in lieu of a $25,000 bail.
“She doesn’t deserve to die that way,” said a sobbing Arce. “If they were going 25 miles per hour, they would have hurt but not killed her. And then she was just thrown on the side like roadkill.”
The victim died a short time later at Jacobi Medical Center, authorities said.
Arocho had spent Friday night preparing relief packages for her sisters, brothers and cousins back in San Sebastian, Puerto Rico. Family members are so far unable to reach her husband, who is also down on the island.
“If you go inside that house right now, you’ll see a suitcase of stuff packed up and ready to go,” said daughter Miriam, 51. “If you go to the back of the house, you’ll see boxes of stuff.”
Arocho’s children and her neighbors in the Wakefield section of the Bronx remembered the octogenarian as a vibrant and generous woman, young at heart and strong of will.
“Very alive, very spirited,” said one neighbor. “She dressed young. She was a great woman.”
With Kerry Burke
