A young Irish immigrant was killed by a hit-and-run driver on a treacherous stretch of highway — near the Tombstone Saloon and Woodlawn Cemetery — in The Bronx this morning, police and witnesses said.
Victim Kevin Bell, 26, was mowed down around 3:30 a.m. a few blocks from the Major Deegan Expressway, on East 233rd Street.
Neighbors said the dangerous stretch of highway is notorious for speeding cars.
Sources said it appeared that the victim may have been drinking before he was killed.
Police have not released a description of the car that hit Bell yet.
The victim was a local soccer player who was supposed to have a game today.
“It got cancelled,” said one neighbor who did not want to provide her name. “He was friends with a lot of students. He was a small, red-headed fellow. It’s an awful [phone] call for those parents on Father’s Day.”
Local resident Rick McManamy, 56, woke up to flashing lights after the accident happened in front of his home. He said a woman driving westbound saw the apparently drunken young man lying in the middle of the road before he was hit. She stopped her vehicled and rushed over to try to help him, but he got hit by a car before she got there, McManamy said.
“She saw him get down on the ground, and said, ‘Wow, I should help that guy out of the street.’ By the time she pulled over and got down the hill, he’d already been hit, said McManamy, who spoke to the good Samaritan. “She saw blood coming out his head.
“She felt terrible. She said, ‘If only I pulled over immediately, I could’ve saved him,” McManamy said.
McManamy said he didn’t hear brakes and wondered if the driver knew he hit someone.
“It’s dark over there,” he said. “It’s possible that the [driver] didn’t see him. But imagine the [victim’s] parents. They probably live in Ireland, all the way in another country, and they get this news? It’s terrible.”
kconley@nypost.com