The cabbie who hit and killed a 9-year-old boy crossing the street near his Upper West Side home last year has gotten a $580 traffic ticket in the case, stunning the boy's family.
"How is it possible that this is not considered criminal?" the boy's mother, Dana Lerner, said Tuesday. "How is it possible that someone like this can drive again? It's not right."
Cooper Stock and his father were crossing West End Avenue on Jan. 10, 2014 when they were hit by a cab making a left turn from West 97th Street.
The boy's head and body had been run over by two of the taxi's tires, and he was pronounced dead at the scene, according to authorities. The boy's 51-year-old father, Richard, had a leg injury from the impact.
The cab driver, Koffi Komlani, was initially ticketed for failure to yield to a pedestrian, and the NYPD ruled the crash an accident.
Then, on Oct. 7, 2014, Komlani was arrested on charges from the Manhattan District Attorney's office alleging he didn't exercise due care when making the turn.
Prosecutors ultimately found there wasn't enough evidence to justify a felony charge. And while the case was handled in criminal court -- versus traffic court -- it did not lead to jail time. He was facing up to 15 days in jail.
Instead, Komlani, 44, will have to pay the $580 fine, have his license suspended for six months and have to take a driver's safety course.
The judge called the events tragic, but not a crime.
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According to the criminal complaint filed by the Manhattan district attorney's office in October, Komlani told the police officer who responded to the scene, "I came down West 97th Street. I stopped at the red light. The light turned green and the car immediately in front of me turned left. I followed that car making a left behind that car. Suddenly I heard a boom. I never saw anyone. I accelerated to the left and stopped my car. When I got out of the car, someone said to me, ‘you just killed a kid.’"
Komlani's attorney said at the October arraignment that his client "feels awful."
Lerner said in an interview with NBC 4 New York Tuesday, "The injustice of this is too much to bear."
"He was such a bright light, and the light has been dimmed," she said of Cooper. "But I have to keep going."
Lerner has been lobbying lawmakers for tougher laws against reckless drivers, and says there's a difference between true accident and reckless driving.
"Reckless driving is the new drunk driving. Reckless driving needs to be seen in the same way," she said.
