Michael Regina / August 9, 1996
February 20, 1998
Dear Speaker Vallone:
I am writing to you because my family needs your help. Our father was killed in an auto accident 18 months ago, and the NYPD is stonewalling us and ignoring our pleas for justice.

Dad was crossing Lafayette Street in front of his auto repair shop in SoHo on Aug. 9, 1996. He was looking in the legal direction of traffic, so he didn't see a 1985 Chevy Suburban racing toward him in reverse. The impact broke several ribs and threw Dad's stout 200-lb. body 15-20 feet in the air. He landed on his head. Surgery didn't help. Dad suffered unimaginably for nine days and died on Sunday, Aug. 18. He was 57.

You would think that someone who drove in reverse that fast would be judged to have been operating at "a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the situation," and thus meet the criteria to be charged with Criminally Negligent Homicide. You would think that if the same individual had received two speeding tickets in a 3-month period prior to killing my father (not to mention another three tickets in the ensuing 16 months), that prosecutors would find a pattern of continuing recklessness.

But you would be wrong in each instance. The driver has not even been issued a summons. The police Accident Investigation Squad has yet to call witnesses.

Mr. Speaker, we need you to put pressure on the NYPD and the Manhattan DA to seek an indictment and let a jury decide if the driver who killed my father violated the norms of civilized society and should be held accountable for his actions.

We also need the justice system to send the message that pedestrians are not equipped with airbags and heavy metal frames, and cannot defend themselves against lawbreakers like the one who killed Dad. Excerpted from a letter to New York City Council Speaker Peter F. Vallone, by Mr. Regina's daughter, Marianna. Speaker Vallone contacted the Manhattan District Attorney, who declined to prosecute.

Rachel Fruchter / July 12, 1997
Rachel Fruchter is dead because, while she rode her bicycle in Prospect Park on a Saturday morning, a van struck her from behind and dragged her 50 feet before flinging her against a curb.

Rachel Fruchter, wife of Norman, mother of Lev and Chenda, daughter of Gertrude Gillet, sister of Simon, Matthew, and Peter, is dead because the City of New York permits motorists to drive in Prospect Park, not only on weekdays, but on "car-free" weekends and holidays, to access a parking lot.

Rachel Fruchter, 57, biochemist and health researcher, is dead because, like hundreds of other motorists, the driver of the van was illegally using the Prospect Park drive as a shortcut.

Rachel Fruchter, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the State University of New York, is dead because the van had a cracked windshield, possibly impeding the driver's view in front.

Rachel Fruchter, a contributor to the landmark Our Bodies, Our Selves: A Book by and for Women, is dead because, as inferred from skid marks left by the vehicle, the van was traveling at 41 miles per hour, 11 mph over the legal limit and far in excess of any reasonable speed in a crowded park. Rachel Fruchter, whose research established that immigrant women without access to adequate health care suffer higher rates of cervical cancer, is dead because no places in our city -- not the streets, not the sidewalks, not even the parks -- are safe from marauding automobiles. Rachel Fruchter, who worked to improve health care for Caribbean women in central Brooklyn, is dead because the police refer only a handful of pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities to the district attorneys for prosecution.

Rachel Fruchter, who was investigating how the human papilloma virus relates to AIDS, is dead because when it comes to pedestrians and bicycle-riders, drivers know they can get away with murder. Excerpted from remarks by Right Of Way member Charles Komanoff at a July 17, 1997 Prospect Park memorial vigil.

Alberta Kenney / May 7, 1997
Volunteer Killed on a Street She Protected.
Like thousands of auxiliary police officers around New York City, Alberta Genevieve Kenney gave her own time to patrol the streets. A retired emergency room nurse, she was at once fearless and caring when she patrolled the Upper East Side neighborhood that she called home, colleagues said.

But yesterday Mrs. Kenney, an 81-year-old lieutenant with the auxiliary police, was struck and killed by a bus as she tried to cross the street at the corner of York Avenue and East 79th Street. Mrs. Kenney was scheduled to report to the 19th Precinct, on East 67th Street, at 7 P.M., but she never made it, and the news of her death brought tears to the eyes of police officers. For it was at the 19th Precinct that Mrs. Kenney volunteered countless hours over two decades -- even reporting to work after surgery on her hips forced her to walk with a cane.

At 9:30 A.M. yesterday, Mrs. Kenney was walking in her neighborhood when she was struck by a private bus owned by the TFD Bus Company, as the driver, Roger Bess, 53, was making a left turn onto East 79th Street. Mrs. Kenney fell under the rear wheels after she was struck, the police said. She died later at New York Hospital. Bess was not charged, and the police had not determined whether anyone was at fault. Mrs. Kenney, a widow with one daughter and several grandchildren, began her volunteer work at the 19th Precinct in 1974. At the time, she was a head nurse at the Metropolitan Hospital Center. During World War II, she worked as a nurse in a veterans hospital. She went to work at the city hospital in 1953 and retired in 1980. After her retirement, Mrs. Kenney stepped up her volunteer efforts at the 19th Precinct. "She was always out on the street trying to help people and help us," said Police Officer Maria Ayala. "She could never stay still."

Aaron Brown / December 27, 1998
January 22, 1999
Dear District Attorney Brown:
It is nearly a month since nine-year-old Aaron Brown was killed on a Sunday afternoon by a reckless driver at 110th Avenue and 164th Place. Yet your office refuses to charge Aaron's killer with anything more than traffic-related offenses: leaving the scene of an accident, driving without a license, and driving without insurance.

Suppose a man took a gun onto a Queens street and fired it at random until he struck and killed someone. Would you be content to charge the shooter with unlicensed possession of a firearm, discharging a firearm within the city limits, and perhaps a noise violation? Of course not. The driver who killed Aaron was not licensed to operate a motor vehicle. When he struck Aaron, at an intersection where pedestrians have the legal right-of-way, he was leaving the scene of two previous collisions. Aaron's brother, who was seriously injured by the same driver, reportedly states that the driver was speeding when he struck Aaron -- as is standard for drivers fleeing the scene.

Is this not the very picture of "depraved indifference"? At the very least, did not the driver exhibit "a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the situation" -- the language defining criminally negligent homicide (Penal Law 15.05)? The reign of terror which drivers, and compliant officials, have imposed on our streets will not end until people who use a car to kill are treated the same as killers with any other weapon. That depends on you, Mr. Brown. It isn't too much to say that law-enforcement officials who wink at vehicular crime are, morally, accessories before and after the fact. The man who took Aaron Brown's young life should be charged with vehicular manslaughter. It is long past time to stop coddling drivers who kill.

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