Last night, a Brooklyn woman was fatally struck by a driver in a Mercedes SUV on Water Street and Old Slip in lower Manhattan. Florence Cioffi, 59, was pronounced dead at NYU Downtown Hospital.
The vehicle's driver, George W. Anderson, according to CityRoom, "left the scene of the accident but returned five minutes later" and "refused to submit to a Breathalyzer test to determine if he had been drinking." He was charged with vehicular manslaughter, leaving the scene of an accident and criminally negligent homicide. The police took him to NYU Downtown Hospital to get a blood sample, via court order.
WNBC reports that Cioffi had been "crossing the street in the middle of the block." Her fiance told CityRoom that she had been having dinner with friends. Cioffi worked at a company previously based at the World Trade Center (on September 11, she was "drinking a cup of coffee outside the building when the attack occurred and fled the scene").
Anderson described himself to police as a computer programmer, but he's apparently the founder, President and CEO of Enterprise Engineering, based in Manhattan and which provides software and services to Fortune 500 companies. He had recently sold a home in Westhampton and bought a $3.8 million house in Brookville.
