The SUV driver who fatally struck a 7-year-old girl in Queens in February was arrested and charged with criminally negligent homicide on Tuesday, police said.
Police said Claudia Mendez-Vasquez, 46, was driving a 2021 Ford Explorer when she hit Dolma Naadhun after rolling through a stop sign on Newtown Road and 45th Street in Astoria. Naadhun suffered severe head trauma, and was taken to Elmhurst Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
The city’s Department of Transportation has said the driver was not properly licensed — she had a learner’s permit and was driving without a licensed adult in the car. She also had a legal amount of alcohol in her system at the time of the crash, according to the DOT.
Attorney information for Mendez-Vasquez was not immediately available.
Naadhun’s father told the Daily News that the family has forgiven the driver, and did not want to press charges.
“I told them I just didn’t want to charge her because she has a 12 year-old-daughter,” he told the Daily News on Tuesday. He said their focus was on dealing with the loss.
“Whatever city rules they follow they have to follow, but from my family’s side, we forgive her already,” he told the Daily News.
Last month, the DOT announced it would install a traffic light at the intersection where the fatal crash happened. In the following weeks, Astoria residents demanded better enforcement of traffic laws in the area by the NYPD at several contentious community meetings held by the local precinct.
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