No charges were filed by NYPD or Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance against the driver who fatally struck 82-year-old Sui Leung in a Manhattan crosswalk last fall. Though Council Member Margaret Chin said the NYPD crash report indicated Leung was walking with the right of way, Vance's office says the investigation has yet to conclude seven months after the crash.
A commercial van driver hit Leung as she crossed at the intersection Kenmare and Elizabeth Streets on the afternoon of September 25, 2014. NYPD didn't release the driver's identity. The van belonged to Party Rental Ltd. of Teterboro, New Jersey.
Shortly after the crash, NYPD told Streetsblog the driver had a green light. A visit to the intersection revealed there is no exclusive turn phase at Kenmare and Elizabeth, so Leung would have had a walk signal when the driver had a green, and would therefore have had the right of way.
“She had the right of way,” local City Council Member Margaret Chin told Streetsblog last October. Along with council reps Rosie Mendez and Ydanis Rodriguez, Chin sent a letter to NYPD Chief of Transportation Thomas Chan urging police to charge the driver under the Right of Way Law, which took effect last August. According to details provided in the police report, Chin said, Leung “unquestionably did nothing wrong.”
Streetsblog contacted Chin's office last December to check up on the case, and at that time no action had been taken against the driver.
“It looks like no charges were ever filed," Chin spokesperson Sam Spokony told Streetsblog last week, "and that’s obviously something we’re really unhappy with, as Council Member Chin has communicated to both the Manhattan DA’s office and NYPD.”
“At this stage, the investigation remains open, so we cannot make further comment,” said Vance spokesperson Joan Vollero. Vance's office usually does not comment on vehicular cases, even when cases are disposed or no charges are filed in the first place.
The investigation into the death of 9-year-old Cooper Stock was officially "open" for months after Vance’s office told family members no charges would be filed against the cab driver who killed him.
At a public event last January Vance said he had secured indictments in just 190 vehicular cases, including crashes involving drunk driving, since taking office in 2010. When asked what prevents him from bringing cases against more drivers who injure and kill, Vance said, “Because we do not believe after an investigation that the facts prove a crime.” Vance did not mention the Right of Way Law during his remarks.
The Right of Way Law was intended to give law enforcers a tool to charge drivers for harming people who are following traffic rules, but application of the law is still sporadic. The public is left to guess why NYPD and city district attorneys decline to use the law in crashes like the one that killed Sui Leung.
The Right of Way Law is currently under attack from City Council members and state legislators who want to create exemptions for MTA bus drivers who injure and kill people. “Council Member Chin fully supports the Right of Way Law and believes the authorities need to continue to step up their efforts to enforce it,” Spokony said.
