Police say a 9-year-old boy has been killed and his father injured after they were struck by a taxi while crossing a Manhattan street.
The NYPD says officers responded to a report of a boy and his 51-year-old father being struck on the Upper West Side just after 9 p.m. Friday.
Police say the boy, Cooper Stock, was taken to St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center by emergency workers and pronounced dead. They say his father, Richard Stock, sustained a leg injury.
Witnesses say the father's screams after his son was hit were heart-wrenching, and that he tried to revive Cooper.
Investigators believe the two were crossing West End Avenue on 97th Street when a turning taxi hit them.
Neighbors said the tragedy can partially be blamed on bad traffic patterns in the area.
"There's always traffic, pretty bad," said Nick Hazapiz.
City Comptroller Scott Stringer agrees and is calling on the DOT to take action on a traffic study for the area completed last November.
"The time for studying the 96th Street traffic corridor is over, and New York City needs to take action now that will prevent such fatalities in the future," Stringer said in a statement.
The 53-year-old taxi driver remained at the scene and was issued a citation for failure to yield to a pedestrian.
