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WILKES-BARRE – Virginia Noll had just returned home with a bag full of groceries when a red Chevy Colorado struck and killed her.

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The body of an elderly female is covered by a sheet on South Washington Street after she was hit by a truck Thursday.

Aimee Dilger/The Times Leader

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The 88-year-old woman died Thursday afternoon in front of B’Nai B’Rith Apartments where she lived and St. Mary’s Church of The Immaculate Conception where Noll would go to Mass on Sunday mornings.

Noll was dropped off by a bus across from the senior citizen high rise on South Washington Street, said Wilkes-Barre Police Sgt. James Sheridan.

A man who was driving the truck was traveling south on the one-way street and had stopped for a red traffic light at the East Northampton Street intersection just before the accident at about 5:30 p.m., according to Sheridan.

The driver has not been charged or identified and was taken to Wilkes-Barre General Hospital for a blood-alcohol test, the sergeant said. Accident reconstruction is pending.

Police blocked off traffic for about an hour in this area roped off in yellow tape.

A white sheet was draped over the petite woman’s body on the left side of the curb across from the bus stop where a small group of friends and neighbors gathered.

“She was always a wonderful person,” said Marian Cromack, 86, who lived on the seventh floor with Noll. “It’s terrible. We had visions of her getting hit crossing this street. ”

A loaf of bread, vegetables and fresh fruits from inside Noll’s grocery bag were found about 50 feet from her body on a street curb. A faded gray purse belonging to her was nearby.

The impact of the crash appeared to have knocked the worn-out shoes off of Noll’s small feet. Red paint freshly marked the pavement where evidence remained, along with the woman’s shoes – one on a sidewalk, the other in the roadway.

Nicholas B. Borowitz, a resident of the senior apartment complex at 61 E. Northampton St., said he is worried about the safety of elderly residents at the downtown high rise.

“It is very dangerous around here for seniors,” said Borowitz, a next-door neighbor and friend of Nolls. .”

This is the second crash involving a pedestrian in Luzerne County on Thursday.

A 43-year-old man from Mocanaqua was walking across Route 239, Conyngham Township, when he fell for unknown reasons in the middle of the roadway and was struck by a Jeep Cherokee driven by Larry James, 49, of Nanticoke, state police at Shickshinny said.

Police said the Jeep ran over one of the victim’s legs. The man, whose name was not released, was flown to Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Township.