‘MEDICAL’ WASTE: A medical examiner’s crew yesterday shoves the body of hit-and-run victim Kevin Bell (right) — hidden behind a white sheet — into a van already loaded with bottles. (NY Post: G.N. Miller)
He was thrown out with the trash.
A young Irishman who came to the city to work for the summer was killed by a hit-and-run driver in The Bronx early yesterday, and his body was then stuffed into the back of a city Medical Examiner’s Office van — next to grimy bags of recyclable bottles.
A two-man city ME crew can be seen in photos shoving aside the brimming sacks of trash to make room for Kevin Bell’s body. Cops held up a white sheet to block the corpse from view.
ME officials were at a loss to explain to The Post why the 26-year-old’s body was stuffed next to the bags.
“We’re taking this incident very seriously, and we are actively investigating it at this time,” said ME spokeswoman Ellen Borakove.
Bell’s shattered friends said the treatment of his crushed body was unconscionable.
“I can’t begin to think of how the suffering must be for his parents at the moment,” said pal Joe Crilly, 55.
Marielly Ramos, 33, who was driving on East 233rd near Oneida Avenue where Bell was struck, pulled over in a futile bid to save him.
She told The Post last night, “I’m just so disgusted right now. I don’t understand people.
“I’m the only one who stopped the car to run to him. People were just driving by,’’ she said. “And they throw him in a car full of garbage? It’s upsetting. He’s somebody’s child. You wouldn’t even do that to an animal.’’
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn today vowed to probe the incident.
“I deeply concerned to learn that a young man’s corpse was treated by [the Office of the City Medical Examiner] in such an undignified way,” she said in a statement.
“The treatment of the deceased reflects the respect that we have for human life itself. OCME staff showed an utter lack of respect for Kevin Bell, and this incident is the latest in a string of troubling occurrences in the office over the past several months.
“On June 24, the City Council’s Health Committee plans to get to the bottom of how and why this – and other concerning incidents – have been allowed to happen in order to stop them from happening again.”
Bell had been drinking with pals on the Upper East Side before returning to his Woodlawn neighborhood alone at around 3:30 a.m.
The construction worker was stumbling before he inexplicably lay down in the middle of the darkened road — near the Tombstone Saloon and Woodlawn Cemetery — and was crushed by at least one car, witnesses said.
“I’m like, ‘What is he doing? . . . Someone is going to drive over him,’ and I realize I have to hurry,” Ramos recalled.
“I put on my hazards and pull over and start running toward him and saying, ‘Hey! Hey!’ In a matter of seconds, he was hit.
“It was a gray sedan. By the time I got there, there was blood dripping down the side of his face.
“I was crying and crying,’’ Ramos said, “And people were looking at me and said, ‘Did you know him?’ I said, ‘Do I have to know him to care? ’
“Whoever ran over him probably didn’t see him.’’
Still, it appeared that driver was aware of hitting something because he or she swerved to the side, but continued driving off, Ramos said.
Dominic Bradley, a family friend in Newry, Northern Ireland, told the BBC, “Kevin’s parents, brothers [and] sisters . . . are devastated and heartbroken’’ by his death.
With Kate Sheehy and Jamie Schram