Gothamist has reported that a driver who struck and killed a Harlem sixth grader was apparently operating an Uber-affiliated car. This is what they had to say about this pedestrian car accident case:
The victim, Ervi Secundino, was struck at around 3 p.m. [on May 6, 2015] while crossing Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard at 150th Street. The driver, who the NYPD described to us as a 23-year-old male from Brooklyn, stayed at the scene and has not been charged with a crime. Taxi and Limousine Commission spokesperson Allan Fromberg told Capital New York that the car was affiliated to an Uber base[.] …
A crossing guard told reporters that the driver was speeding when he struck Ervi—she added that she had not waved the boy across the street, as the red light was blinking at the time. “He didn’t have the light, he just ran right across the street and that’s when the car just hit him. He flew up and landed on the car. That’s how the car is dented,” she told 1010 WINS.
Generally, New York drivers are “required to keep a reasonably careful look out for pedestrians, to see what was there to be seen, to sound the horn when a reasonably prudent person would have done so to warn a pedestrian of danger and to operate the car with reasonable care to avoid hitting any pedestrian on the roadway.” [NY Pattern Jury Instruction 2:75]
Details are still unclear and not yet completely known regarding this tragic incident. It remains to be seen whether and to what extent civil liability will be imposed. For example, it is unclear whether this is an example of so-called distracted driving, or if the victim was comparatively negligent. Time, and further factual development, will tell.