The cab driver who killed 9-year-old Cooper Stock won't be prosecuted by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, but he won't have a hack license much longer.
Koffi Komlani has not driven a cab since he struck Cooper and his father in an Upper West Side crosswalk in January, according to Allan Fromberg, spokesperson for the Taxi and Limousine Commission. Being a new driver, Komlani has a one-year probationary license, and the TLC will not renew it when it expires on July 5, Fromberg said.
"Obviously, while we are seeking to address issues of getting drivers that we believe are risky off the road more easily through legislative means via Mayor de Blasio's Vision Zero plan, in the meantime, at least, we can take this action," Fromberg told Capital New York.
The TLC says it is hamstrung by rules that make it difficult to take dangerous cab drivers off the streets. Komlani stopped driving voluntarily. The cabbies who killed 5-year-old Timothy Keith and severed the leg of tourist Sian Green, for example, also retained their hack licenses.
Mayor de Blasio's Vision Zero Action Plan includes a number of taxi safety initiatives, including "black box" tech to monitor cab driver behavior. However, TLC Commissioner Meera Joshi did not mention that program when she outlined the TLC's FY 15 budget for the City Council. Joshi has said the TLC and NYPD will form an enforcement squad that will focus exclusively on TLC-licensed vehicles.
After the news broke that Komlani would not be charged criminally, Council Member Helen Rosenthal again called for the passage of "Cooper's Law," her bill to suspend or revoke the hack licenses of cab drivers who are summonsed or convicted, respectively, of traffic violations stemming from crashes that result in critical injury or death.
"Current laws are clearly inadequate, and this news affirms the need for Cooper's Law," said Rosenthal in a press release. "The City legislates the TLC, and it's our responsibility to ensure that those laws are sound."
