Cops: Driver in fatal Old Westbury hit-run arrested

The driver of a Toyota that struck and killed a bicyclist Monday in Old Westbury and fled was arrested a short time later in Jericho, Nassau County police said Tuesday.

Police said Priya Nanda, 21, of Pine Street in Plainview, was charged with leaving the scene of a fatal auto accident, a felony. She was ordered held on $10,000 bond or $5,000 cash bail at her arraignment Tuesday in First District Court in Hempstead.

Police did not immediately release the name of the bicyclist, who court records show died hours later at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow.

Police said the accident took place at 11:10 a.m. on eastbound Store Hill Road as the cyclist traveled in the right lane. Nanda, driving a 1998 Toyota, struck the cyclist as she tried to pass him on the left, police said.

Police said Nanda left the scene, but she and her car were later found in a Staples parking lot on Jericho Turnpike in Jericho.

A prosecutor at Nanda's arraignment said investigators matched her car to the one in the crash based on a side-view mirror.

Nanda's defense attorney, Oscar Michelen of Mineola, said she notified a police officer soon after the crash and was not attempting to avoid responsibility.

In statements given to police about 48 minutes after the crash, Nanda admitted hitting the cyclist, according to court records.

"I was driving and the guy on the bike was next to me and he tried to cut me off," Nanda told police, adding, "I hit him" and "I was nervous and kept driving," according to the court papers.

Nanda, who does not have a criminal record, was joined in court by her parents, uncle and grandfather.

"It's just a horrible tragedy," Michelen said.