No charges have been filed against a cab driver who drove onto a sidewalk in the Bronx and killed a man and a young girl.
The crash happened at around 6:30 p.m. Friday. Reports say the 44-year-old driver, whose name is being withheld by NYPD and the Taxi and Limousine Commission, hit a parked car on a Grand Concourse service road, then crashed onto the sidewalk near a bus stop at E. 170th Street, about a block away, and ran over four people.
Kadeem Brown, 25, died at the scene. Five-year-old Tierre Clark died later at a hospital. A 55-year-old man and a 39-year-old woman, who according to some reports was Tierre's mother, were hospitalized.
“The car came up driving on the sidewalk,” witness Ronald Luis told the Daily News. “After it hit the people, it hit the corner of the building and spun around. The whole front was smashed in.”
“On this side they were pressing on her chest -- the little girl,” witness Raymond Fermin told WCBS. “I’m guessing also she couldn’t breathe. I wasn’t sure. The guy that was laying here on the floor -- they weren’t giving him any treatment. I guess he was already gone.”
Photos and video footage from the scene show the heavily-damaged cab at rest against a building. WABC noted that there are cameras attached to a neighboring building.
No arrests were made and an investigation is ongoing, according to NYPD and the office of Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson. News 12 reported that police believed the driver was speeding. The Daily News said NYPD was looking into whether the driver "was having a medical episode."
“We await the findings of ongoing investigations by the NYPD's Collision Investigation Squad and the Taxi and Limousine Commission,” said Transportation Alternatives in a statement issued Saturday. “If negligence is found to be a factor, the driver must be held accountable to the full extent of the law.”
The driver's TLC license was suspended, but such suspensions are normally temporary, pending the outcome of an NYPD investigation. If no charges are filed it's likely this driver will remain in good standing with the TLC. An Uber driver who hit two people in Manhattan in January, killing Wesley Mensing, got his TLC license back and was reinstated by Uber after NYPD and Manhattan DA Cy Vance declined to charge him.
Robert Johnson brought no charges against the woman who drove onto a sidewalk outside a Bronx school last October, hitting 10 people and killing 8-year-old Rylee Ramos.
The crash that killed Tierre Clark and Kadeem Brown occurred in the 44th Precinct, which issued six speeding tickets in February, and in the City Council district represented by Vanessa Gibson.
