Driver charged after killing pedestrian in the Bronx

Another pedestrian died in a crash in New York City on Saturday after the driver of a van failed to yield to her

62 year old Tian-Rong Lin was crossing Seward Avenue in the Bronx when a van making a left turn from Olmstead Avenue struck her. The accident occurred on Saturday morning around 11:00 am. The driver, 54 year old Ramon Cedeno-Ortiz, stayed at the scene of the accident. He was charged with failure to exercise due care and failure to yield to a pedestrian.

Drivers rarely charged when they kill a pedestrian

While the penalties for failure to yield to a pedestrian can result to $750 in fine and/or up to 15 days in jail, the NYPD rarely charge drivers who injure or kill pedestrians. Drivers who are ticketed are usually drunk or unlicensed. In most cases, a driver who hits a pedestrian, even though he or she failed to yield to the pedestrian, will not be charged by the police if he or she stayed at the scene of the accident.

The victim was rushed to the hospital where she died from her injury.

80 people died in crashes in NYC since the beginning of the year, the highest since 2014

So far between the beginning of the year and May 12, 80 people died in crashes in New York City.  This is the highest number of fatalities for that period since 2014 when 80 people died in NYC crashes as well. A year before, during the same period of 2013, before Vision Zero started, 90 people died in auto accidents between January 1st and May 12.

Mayor Adams repeated several times he would crack down on reckless drivers  but according to Streetblog the NYPD is more focused on gun control than on cracking down on reckless drivers.

Picture of the location of the fatal crash: courtesy of Google Map

The penalties for failure to yield to a pedestrian can result to $750 and/or 15 days in jail. Most of the time reckless drivers who killed or injured a pedestrians are not charged by the police except if they are drunk or unlicensed.  Following the recent increase in traffic fatalities in New York City, the police started to charge drivers with failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to exercise due care after they killed a pedestrian even though their license was valid and they were sober. When you think about it, 15 days in jail for recklessly killing a pedestrian remains a very small penalty.

Last Saturday, another pedestrian was killed in a car accident in the Bronx and the driver who remained at the scene of the accident and was charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to exercise due care.  62 year old Tian-Rong Lin was in the crosswalk when the driver who was making a left turn failed to yield to her and fatally struck her.