An investigation into the death last summer of a 21-year-old college student who was hit by a car while crossing the street found no evidence that the driver was distracted, intoxicated or speeding at the time, according to the Erie County District Attorney’s Office.
But on Friday, more than eight months after Sydney C. Lohr was killed, Mohammed Tanbir, 26, of Buffalo, was arraigned in Buffalo City Court on felony charges related to heavily tinted windows on the vehicle he was driving when he hit Lohr.
In New York State, it is illegal to drive a vehicle with a windshield or front side window that blocks more than 30% of light.
Prosecutors ultimately determined that the tinted windows did not contribute to the deadly accident, and Tanbir had received a medical exemption from the state Department of Motor Vehicles that allowed him to install the darker windows.
As investigators looked further, they discovered something else: evidence that Tanbir had submitted falsified forms to the DMV, prosecutors said.
Tanbir was charged with three counts of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, which are felonies.
Prosecutors accuse Tanbir of intending to defraud by submitting forms in 2020, 2021 and 2022 stating he had a medical condition and falsifying a doctor’s signature on the forms.
The DMV website lists several medical conditions that may make an applicant eligible for a tinted window exemption, including albinism, chronic actinic dermatitis and xeroderma. Applications for exemptions must include a signed physician’s statement.
Lohr was attempting to cross Elmwood Avenue near Forest Avenue just after 11 p.m. July 15 when she was struck by Tanbir’s southbound vehicle. Lohr was taken by ambulance to Erie County Medical Center, where she died days later.
Lohr was an honors student entering her senior year at St. Lawrence University and had recently completed a semester abroad in Australia, Michael T. O’Connor, an…
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