Driver Charged After Bronx Car Wash Worker Killed on Webster
Police later charged Trina Bryant in the hit-and-run that killed car wash worker Felix Thomas Bontia; the city crash record lists one pedestrian killed and one motorist injured on Webster Avenue.
What We Know
Felix Thomas Bontia, 47, was working outside a 24-hour car wash on Webster Avenue early on Feb. 19, 2023, when police said a driver in a 2011 Ford Escape entered the bus lane and hit him and the Toyota RAV4 he was drying. The city crash record lists one pedestrian killed and one motorist injured, and cites driver inattention or distraction for the crash; the Ford record also lists unsafe speed. Police said the driver and a passenger left the scene. In 2025, police arrested Trina Bryant and charged her with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and leaving the scene of an accident.
Bontia was working when the driver entered the bus lane
Felix Thomas Bontia, 47, was drying a customer's Toyota RAV4 outside a 24-hour car wash early on Feb. 19, 2023, when police said a driver in a Ford Escape traveled south on Webster Avenue, entered the bus lane and hit him and the Toyota. EMS took Bontia to Lincoln Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The city crash record lists one pedestrian killed and one motorist injured. It records the Ford as traveling south and going straight ahead before the crash, while the Toyota and a Nissan sedan were parked.
The crash happened outside a Webster Avenue car wash
The public reports place the crash outside a 24-hour car wash on Webster Avenue in the Bronx. amNY described the site as the Speedway car wash on Webster Avenue in Concourse Village and also referred to Webster Avenue and East 168th Street; the Daily News described it as Webster Avenue near East 167th Street in Claremont.
Coworkers described a worker with family abroad
The Daily News quoted car wash manager Milton Cardenas saying Bontia was a good, quiet worker with family in Mexico and two children. Cardenas said Bontia was wiping down the driver's side of the Toyota when he was hit from behind.
Police later charged a driver
The crash record cites driver inattention or distraction for the crash, and the Ford record also lists unsafe speed. Cardenas told the Daily News the driver ran a red light and was going over 60 mph.
Police initially said the Ford driver and a passenger left the scene. In July 2025, the Daily News reported that police arrested Trina Bryant, 32, on charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and leaving the scene of an accident.