MY CHILD DIED - HE CAN SAVE YOURS
Tragic Cooper’s mom in plea to TLC
The mom of a 9yearold boy killed by a careless cabby talked of her heartache Thursday, as she implored the city to enforce sweeping new safety measures for drivers.
“I miss my son desperately,” Dana Lerner said before entering a Taxi and Limousine Commission safety hearing. “There’s no justice. Our lives have been destroyed. I cannot bear the idea that my son has died in vain.”
Lerner’s son, Cooper Stock, was struck and killed in January by a taxi that failed to yield as he crossed West End Avenue with his dad, Dr. Richard Stock. The driver got a $300 ticket but did not lose his license.
The tragic death has led to the passage of Cooper’s Law, which gives the TLC the power to suspend a hack’s license if the driver commits a safety violation in a crash involving a fatality or serious injury.
Lerner demanded the commission work hard to enforce safety rules — and told how she took matters into her own hands Monday by educating a speeding cabby.
“I asked him to slow down,” she said. “I then
I cannot bear the idea that my son has died in vain. — Dana Lerner on son Cooper Stock (right)
asked him if he ever heard of Cooper’s Law . . . He had no idea what I was talking about.”
Lerner, who was riding on the Upper West Side, said she showed the driver where her son was killed and gave him a bracelet bearing Cooper’s name.
He was one of 20 cabbies to whom she has given such bracelets.
“Since my son died, I have learned the truth about laws,” she said. “They are only good if they are enforced.”
Cooper’s Law will go into effect on Sunday. It is part of Vision Zero, Mayor de Blasio’s plan to end traffic deaths in the city.
Other new safety rules include Vision Zero taxi decals that would remind drivers to be careful when making turns.
Another would allow the agency to combine DMV and TLC safetyrelated points on a license when determining whether a driver should be on the road.
“This is a difficult and necessary area of legislation,” TLC Commissioner Meera Joshi said of the new rules.
Officials said 24,000 TLC drivers were in crashes last year, including blackcar and livery drivers. Less than 1 percent of the collisions involved an injury or death.
Bhairavi Desai, head of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance union, said there is a misconception that cabbies are less safe than other drivers.
“Throughout Vision Zero, one thing that has frustrated all of us is that there’s been very little said about shared responsibility on the streets,” she said.