An SUV driver who struck a 7-year-old girl at a Queens intersection nearly three months ago was arrested Tuesday for criminally negligent homicide after cops determined she blew a stop sign during the fatal crash.
Claudia Mendez-Vasquez, 46, slammed into little Dolma Naadhun near Newtown Road and 45th St. in Astoria the evening of Feb. 17.
The girl hit her head on the roadway and suffered severe injuries. Medics rushed her to Elmhurst Hospital, but she could not be saved.
Police said Mendez-Vasquez, who lives in Maspeth, was driving her 2021 Ford Explorer east on Newtown Road when she entered the intersection without fully coming to a halt at the stop sign and hit the girl as she crossed 45th St., just up the block from the victim’s home.
The child was walking home from an after-school program with her mother and sister.
Mendez-Vasquez was arrested and released on her own recognizance on condition she surrender her passport within a week, officials said.
Dolma’s father said his family has already forgiven the driver, and that their focus was on dealing with the loss.
“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. “I don’t want any charges from my family.
“Whatever city rules they follow they have to follow, but from my family’s side, we forgive her already,” he added.
Witnesses recounted a horrifying scene the day of the crash.
“I heard the screaming. I came down and the baby was lying in the middle of the street bleeding,” a nearby resident who wished not to be named told the Daily News hours after the crash.
“Her mother was over her crying. It was terrible, just terrible. That poor little thing.”
Mendez-Vasquez remained at the scene. She was driving with her son and two other passengers, one of whom described the incident as “an accident.”
“We didn’t see them,” the passenger previously told The News.
Days after Dolma died, friends, family and community members…
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