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Street To Be Renamed for Woman Killed in Hit-and-Run Near Astoria Park

 A memorial at the corner of Ditmars Boulevard and 19th Street, where Betty Jean DiBiaso was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver in 2015.
A memorial at the corner of Ditmars Boulevard and 19th Street, where Betty Jean DiBiaso was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver in 2015.
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DNAinfo/Jeanmarie Evelly

DITMARS — A street corner near Astoria Park will be renamed later this month after a 21-year-old pedestrian who was struck and killed there by a hit-and-run driver in 2015, according to city officials.

The corner of Ditmars Boulevard and 19th Street will be co-named Betty Jean DiBiaso Way during a ceremony planned at the intersection on June 23rd, City Councilman Costa Constantinides said Tuesday.

DiBiaso — whose last name was previously misspelled by police and prosecutors as Dibiasio, according to the councilman's office — was walking in the crosswalk across Ditmars Boulevard shortly after midnight on June 27, 2015 when she was hit by driver Nicholas Colleran.

Colleran, 25, ran a stop sign before the crash and fled the scene after striking DiBiaso, officials said. He turned himself in to police the next day, and was sentenced in November of 2015 to up to four years in prison.

DiBiaso's death spurred calls from local lawmakers and residents for traffic safety upgrades on the streets around Astoria Park, and the Department of Transportation announced a number of changes last year.

"We co-name this street to show that Betty's death was not in vain — that we learned from the tragedy and worked to ensure it would not happen again," Constantinides said in a statement.

The street renaming ceremony will take place at the corner of Ditmars Boulevard and 19th Street on June 23 at 1 p.m., the councilman's office said.