The devastated mother of an up-and-coming young actress who died under the wheels of a dump truck called on the hit-and-run driver last night to turn himself in.
Roxana Sorina Buta (pictured), 21, who played the biggest role of her career in an off-Broadway show that ended its limited run in January, was headed home to East Harlem from her job as a waitress when the tragedy took place at Union Square early Thursday.
“All I want is justice for my daughter,’’ said her mom, Cristina Oprea
“He hit my daughter and he just kept on driving. Who does something like that? He should give himself up.’’
Buta’s play, the comedy “Him,’’ played at the Cherry Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village.
“It was her dream since she was a little kid. All she wanted to do was act. And she didn’t need any help getting here,’’ her mom said proudly.
“She did it all by herself.’’
Oprea recalled how she got the tragic news later the day of the accident.
“I was expecting a call from my daughter,” she said. “My phone rang and I saw it was her number.
“But it was a man asking if I knew her. He was a police officer. He told me there was an accident. I asked if she was still alive.
“He said, ‘No, Miss.’
“I felt like I lost my entire world.’’
Clifford Streit, the play’s writer and director, said Buta “had phenomenal potential. She had great comedic timing. She made my lines fly.”
“It’s a terrible loss,” he said. “This is a young person whose entire life was in front of her. This is just wrong.’’