NYPD: “No Criminality” When Drivers Collide, Kill Woman on Bronx Sidewalk
For the second time in less than a week, colliding motorists killed a person standing on a New York City sidewalk and NYPD filed no charges.
On Monday afternoon the driver of a Coca-Cola truck struck a passenger car before hitting a group of people who were waiting for a bus in Port Morris, killing 37-year-old Sheniqua Silva and injuring two other pedestrians. NYPD made no arrests after the crash and had no updates on the investigation today. Police "don’t believe there is any criminality on the part of the truck driver," according to WNBC.
The crash occurred near the Bruckner Expressway at around 3:20 p.m. From the Times:
The fatal chain of events started on Bruckner Boulevard, the service road below the expressway, the police said. According to a preliminary investigation, a 52-year-old woman driving a 2013 Nissan S.U.V. crossed two lanes and cut in front of the truck to make a right turn on East 138th Street. Officials said the truck then struck the car before losing control.
Officials said the truck was driven by a 35-year-old man, but they did not release his name. A police spokesman said it appeared that no crime had been committed, but added that the investigation was continuing.
The truck came to a stop after hitting a building. Silva, who had just finished a shift at a nearby bakery, died at the scene. Reports said she had five children, all teenage boys. “She was always worried about our sons,” her husband, Orlando Silva, told the Daily News. “She worked hard and cared about them only.”
A witness told WNBC Silva "didn't have time to run. All you see was the truck zooming, it hit her, it hit her hard and she rolled." Both drivers and two passengers were hospitalized and the front of the cab of the truck was destroyed, signs of a high-speed collision. “The truck went up on the sidewalk like a bullet,” another witness told the Daily News.
Bruckner Boulevard is 12 lanes wide at the E. 138th Street intersection. DOT’s Vision Zero View shows a concentration of injuries to motor vehicle occupants in the area. Locals told the Times and WNBC that motorists make it a dangerous place to walk. The 40th Precinct issues around two speeding tickets a day.
New York City drivers have killed at least nine people on sidewalks and inside buildings in 2015, according to crash data compiled by Streetsblog. Last week Meena Mahabir was killed and her 2-year-old niece critically injured by a driver at a bus stop in Queens. Two weeks ago an Uber driver hit four kids and a mother on a Bronx sidewalk. NYPD and city district attorneys filed no charges related to causing injury or death in any of those cases.
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