Teen held in Montco crash that killed woman, 81

Montgomery County authorities have charged a 17-year-old boy in the hit-and-run collision that left an 81-year-old pedestrian dead this month.

The teen was charged as a juvenile with homicide by vehicle and related offenses in the Oct. 12 incident in Upper Moreland that killed Zita Egitto.

The teen was driving the blue 2000 Volkswagen Passat that hit Egitto as she walked on a sidewalk near York Road and Reed Street about 10:35 a.m., District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said.

Investigators determined that he was driving at least 79 mph in a 35-mph zone on York Road when he apparently decided to turn left onto Reed Street, Ferman added.

To do so, he pulled on his emergency brake to slide his car around the turn, a maneuver known as "drifting," Ferman said. That caused the car's rear wheels to lock up, and the teen lost control of the car, which hit Egitto on the sidewalk, she added.

The car continued up an embankment, hit a large display sign and then rammed a support column of a building at York Road and Reed Street, Ferman said.

Egitto was taken to Abington Memorial Hospital, where she died Oct. 15, Ferman said.

Egitto, of Willow Grove, was a mother of five sons, grandmother of 15 and great-grandmother of two, according to her obituary. She was a retired dietitian and Catholic-education teacher who volunteered at the Upper Moreland library.