The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and the Newark Police Department are investigating a fatal hit and run that took place Sunday night about 11:45 p.m. when 47-year-old Maplewood Douglas Hodgson of Maplewood was struck and killed while changing a flat tire in the area of Routes 1 & 9 South, near the Pulaski Skyway.
Hodgson was pronounced dead at the scene at approximately 12:18 a.m. on Monday. He was returning from a business affair in New York City when he pulled his Lexus to the shoulder of the road to repair a flat tire.
Detectives at the scene said the motor vehicle that struck Hodgson appears to have been a 1998 white Acura CL, two-door. The driver of that vehicle did not stop following the collision. Unless the car has been repaired, it should display damage to the passenger side mirror, front fender and a missing parking light from the front passenger bumper.
Chief Assistant Prosecutor Thomas Fennelly, head of the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide Unit, ask anyone who witnessed the collision or any repair facility that fixed a car meeting that description, to contact the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office Vehicle Homicide Unit at 1-877-847-7432 or Detective Nardone at 973-621-4594.
