Family of woman killed in Levittown hit-and-run seeks public’s help
Ranjit Parmar, at his Levittown home, Friday, Dec 8, 2017, is the father of Taranjit Parmar, 18, who stepped out of her sport utility vehicle following a minor accident last month and was run over by the other driver and left for dead. No person has yet been charged. Credit: Danielle Finkelstein
One month after his teenage daughter was run over by a hit-and-run driver, a Levittown man made an emotional plea for the public’s help in bringing the killer to justice.
In an interview Friday night, Ranjit Parmar said Nassau police have “hit a wall” in trying to find the person behind the wheel of a red pickup truck.
The driver fled the scene of a Nov. 9 fender-bender involving Parmar’s 18-year-old daughter Taranjit, crushing her with the truck and leaving her to die on the street, authorities have said.
Parmar, speaking from his living room with his wife sobbing a few feet away, urged the person responsible for the family’s grief to come forward.
“I’m still pleading to the person to turn themselves in,” the father said. “It’s better now than never. Be kind and cooperate with the police. It’s the right thing to do — not just for justice purposes, but otherwise, how do you live with yourself?”
Taranjit was struck in the middle of afternoon rush-hour traffic near Gardiners Avenue and Hempstead Turnpike in Levittown. Police said she had stepped out of her 2018 Jeep and was approaching the truck.
She was hit while on her cellphone talking to her mother, Ranjit Parmar said.
Taranjit, a dental student at Adelphi University, was taken to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow where she died of severe head injuries hours later.
The investigation remains ongoing and there have been no arrests, police said Friday.
Parmar said it’s probably difficult for authorities to find the driver because witnesses at the scene were paying attention to his critically injured daughter rather than trying to get the truck’s license plate number.
He said he spoke with detectives recently and they told him they’ve made no progress.
“I know that they’re putting in a lot of effort and a lot of manpower, but I think they just hit a wall,” he said of investigators. “It’s not their fault.”
Parmar said he has returned to work but occasionally revisits the scene of the fatal collision in hopes of healing. There, the father said, he sometimes sits and cries.
The loss is even harder for his wife Kulvinder, a homemaker who finds herself surrounded by framed memories of Taranjit, the oldest of three girls.
During Taranjit’s funeral on Nov. 13, about 1,500 people showed up, Ranjit Parmar said. Many were former teachers and classmates of Taranjit’s — from elementary school to college.
“It would be a complete understatement to say we were surprised to see how many people’s lives she touched,” the father said.
