A 9 year-old was fatally struck by a cab driver on the Upper West Side in front of his father on Friday evening. Taxi driver Koffi Komlani struck Cooper Stock and his father Dr. Richard Stock when he made a left-hand turn off 97th Street onto West End Avenue around 9 p.m. Friday. Komlani, 53, has been issued a summons for failure to yield to pedestrians, but the man who was driving behind him thinks it should have been more: “He had to be distracted because there’s no way he could not see them, if I did,” Ramon Gonzalez told the News.
Gonzalez, an assistant director of an educational nonprofit, was driving behind the cab with his own 3-year-old son, and witnessed the incident. “The father grabbed his son. They were both on the hood of the car for a second. The father fell off the passenger side. The son went underneath the driver’s-side tire, first the front one, then the rear,” he said.
Gonzalez said Komlani didn’t brake till after Cooper had gone under both tires: “He hit him and continued straight on. It almost looked like he was going to crash into some parked cars. Then he stopped.”
“The father picked the boy up,” Gonzalez continued. “He said, ‘Cooper wake up! Oh my God, oh my God!’ He placed the child on the hood of my car. I tried to help the little boy because he was choking on his own blood.” Komlani remained at the scene as Gonzalez called 911.
Komlani’s failure to yield summons will result in a fine of between $100-300. At least 21 cab drivers have fatally struck pedestrians in the last five years, and only one has been given criminal charges.
Morgan Levine Dolan represents innocent victims in these and other types of car accident cases. We make sure all possible benefits and rights are afforded our clients. We hold those responsible for causing these accidents accountable for their actions.
If a loved one has been killed in a car accident, please contact Glenn Dolan of Morgan Levine Dolan today.
http://gothamist.com/2014/01/12/taxi_driver_given_summons_for_fatal.php
