The friends of a Long Island hairdresser who made it safely to the shoulder after flipping her SUV but was struck and killed when she returned to her vehicle to retrieve her belongings are raising money for her 3-year-old daughter.
“When a police officer dies, we rally as a community to raise money for their children,” said Judy Raimondi, 47, who owns the hair salon where single-mom Brittany Leith worked. “We have to do something.”
Raimondi and other friends have created a gofundme.com page to raise money for the 25-year-old’s tiny daughter, Zoey.
Leith climbed out from under her vehicle after it struck the center median and flipped on the Southern State Parkway near Exit 36 at about 3:54 a.m. Sunday, state police said. She made it to safety with the help of other motorists, who stopped to aid her.
But she told the Good Samaritans she needed to go back across the busy highway, according to police. She was struck and killed.
Raimondi, who owns Hair Revue in West Babylon, said friends believed she wanted to get her phone so she could call her family. She said the money would either go to the grandmother now taking care of Zoey or into an account for the little girl.