Parents of Allie Liao: ‘We Challenge Drivers to Pause and Ask – Is It Worth It?’

Last month, three year-old Allison Liao was crossing Main Street in Flushing with her grandmother when an SUV driver turned left, hitting and killing the toddler while she had the walk signal in the crosswalk. Yesterday in Jackson Heights, Liao's parents marched with the families and friends of other traffic violence victims, and made this powerful plea for a safer driving culture.

"The police know the driver was in the wrong," Amy Tam, Liao's mother, told the crowd as she wiped away tears. "They issued him two traffic tickets: Failure to yield and failure to use due care. Allie paid the death penalty for crossing the street."

The family has been in touch with the office of Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, which is reviewing the case but has not told the family how long that process will take. During that period, the family does not have access to evidence collected by the police, including video of the crash. "I'm not sure my wife would want to see, but I want to make sure the police are making the right decision,"  Hsi-Pei Liao told Streetsblog. "From what we keep hearing, they're saying it's an accident. I want to see for myself, does it really look like an accident?"

Also marching last night were other Queens parents whose children had been killed by drivers. Prior to the march, the only other parents of traffic violence victims that Tam and Liao had met were Amy Cohen and Gary Eckstein, whose 12 year-old son Sammy was killed on Prospect Park West. "Our kids were killed two days apart, so we connected on a level that's very hard to understand," Tam said. "You know, only parents who have lost their child would understand. I don't know the words."

We'll have a full report on yesterday's demonstration later today.