75-year-old man killed, after he is struck by a pickup, while trying to cross Bustleton Avenue in the Rhawnhurst area of Philadelphia.

A 75-YEAR-OLD man was mere steps from a Rhawnhurst senior center on his way to watch his wife's dance recital Saturday night when he tried to cross a busy stretch of Bustleton Avenue - but police say he never made it.

The man tried to cross Bustleton midblock between Solly Avenue and Stanwood Street - about 100 feet from the Northeast Older Adult Center - just before 9 p.m., police said, and was nearly halfway across when a southbound Ford F-250 pickup truck plowed into him, gravely injuring him. He later died.

A police source said the victim, whom police did not publicly identify last night pending notification of other relatives, was on his way to his wife's recital at the center when the tragedy struck. The man's wife stepped outside in the aftermath of the crash to see what the commotion was, the source said, but went back inside. She didn't realize until after the recital - when she couldn't reach him - that her husband had been the one who was hit.

Medics took the badly injured man to Aria Health's Torresdale hospital, but he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead there at 9:37 p.m.

A police spokeswoman said last night that the 44-year-old driver of the pickup truck remained at the scene of the accident.

The source said investigators have no indication that the driver had been speeding, and that the crash appears to have been a tragic accident.