In the wake of two pedestrian deaths in the Bronx, the Taxi and Limousine Commission has stripped a green taxi driver of his TLC license. The Daily News reports that the 44-year-old driver won't be on the road "as police investigate if he was having a medical episode when he crashed."
On Friday, around 6:30 p.m., the green taxi was traveling on Grand Concourse and first hit a a parked 2001 Subaru, injuring the Subaru's 31-year-old driver. Then the cab mounted the curb and barreled into a group of people waiting for a bus in front of 1410 Grand Concourse, killing Kadeem Brown, 25, who died at the scene, and Tierre Clark, 5, who died at Lincoln Hospital. A 55-year-old man was injured, as was Clark's 39-year-old mother.
A witness described the cab's journey to the News, "The car came up driving on the sidewalk... After it hit the people, it hit the corner of the building and spun around. The whole front was smashed in."
Tierre's grandmother told the News, "She loved to sing and dance — that was Tierre... She would just be walking down the street and break into song. She loved whatever popular music was out." And a friend of Brown said he "worked all the time so he could help his mom retire. 'He was a really humble guy, really nice,' said neighbor Joanna Cruz, 23. 'He never messed around like some of the other guys in the building.'"
Transportation Alternative issued this statement: "We are saddened to hear the terrible news of the crash in the Bronx where a Boro taxi driver went up onto a sidewalk, killing two people, including a five-year-old girl -- and injuring a number of others. We await the findings of ongoing investigations by the NYPD's Collision Investigation Squad and the Taxi & Limousine Commission. If negligence is found to be a factor, the driver must be held accountable to the full extent of the law."
