Philadelphia, PA – Mirian Viniashvilis, an orthodox Jew who emigrated from the Soviet Union in the 1970s, had started a new life in Queens, N.Y., where he took a job in a funeral home “And that’s where he’s going now,” his daughter Leyla Gross said.
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Viniashvili a 70-year-old man who was in Philadelphia visiting his daughter for Sukka’s – was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver as he and his family were crossing busy City Avenue, returning to his daughter’s home in Wynnewood from synagogue Congregation Beth Hamedrosh, in Overbrook Park. Police still haven’t caught the driver who struck Viniashvili.
Earlier his son Elijah was sitting in his sister’s back yard with his father, reading aloud an ancient biblical text. A temporary sukkah, where the family eats and entertains guests for the week-long holiday, was erected in the back yard in Wynnewood. Only a few hours later, Elijah was screaming at his father and vainly trying to wake him as he lay crumpled in the southbound lanes of City Avenue.
Police are still not sure what happened. Cops on the scene received conflicting accounts of the accident from witnesses. Mirian had successfully crossed the northbound lanes of City Avenue when he was struck. Police are urging anyone with information related to the case to call Sgt. Christopher Polo, of the Lower Merion Traffic Safety Unit,