An NYPD employee who was driving a tow truck that fatally struck a 7-year-old in Brooklyn on Thursday morning has been arrested, police said Friday.
Officials said that Stephanie Sharp, a 54-year-old traffic enforcement agent, was been charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian or bicycle and failure to exercise due care.
The boy’s death has sparked outrage among neighborhood parents who say they have been pressing the city to make basic traffic safety upgrades to no avail. Several nearby schools surround the crosswalk where the child died on Myrtle and North Portland Avenues, and parents have been clamoring for crossing guards at the intersection and others near the Brooklyn schools long before the child was killed this week.
Many Fort Greene parents and caregivers interviewed by Gothamist said they have long worried about distracted drivers, especially those making right turns in crowded intersections where the cars park all the way to the edge of the cross street.
“What happened yesterday is a tragedy and it’s one of multiple tragedies in this area,” said Pamela Reed, a Clinton Hill resident whose three children attend P. S. 20, a few blocks away from where the child died. “I’ve talked to so many moms who have been crying. Every moment as a pedestrian or a cyclist, you feel like you’re putting your life in danger in New York City.”
Those who witnessed the death were especially traumatized.
“I saw and I was shocked because the boy was so small. I didn’t expect it, but he was a kid and I couldn’t feel OK after that,” said Beyza Mutlu, a 25 year-old nanny who wants police to give more tickets to drivers who don’t pay attention to the road.
“They just don’t care. They’re so dangerous around here,” she said. “I’m her nanny so I’m so scared to walk around because I don’t want her to get hurt.”
Sharp is accused of driving the tow truck that struck the child at the Fort Greene intersection as he was making his way through the intersection…
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