Chris Robbins at Gothamist reports that the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles has revoked the license of Ahmad Abu-Zayedeh, who struck and killed 3-year-old Allie Liao in a Queens crosswalk in 2013. The decision by administrative law judge Sidney Fuchs reinforces the importance of DMV safety hearings as a venue to ensure that reckless drivers face consequences for killing other people.
On October 6, 2013, Abu-Zayedeh failed to yield to Allie and her grandmother as they crossed Main Street in Flushing with the signal. With Queens District Attorney Richard Brown declining to prosecute and a DMV judge offhandedly tossing the two tickets that had been issued to Abu-Zayedeh, the DMV safety hearing on January 6 was perhaps the last opportunity to hold him accountable for ending Allie Liao's life.
Fuchs did not render a decision on the day of the hearing, but a DMV spokesperson told Gothamist that the judge revoked Abu-Zayedeh's license on January 13. The length of the revocation has yet to be announced, reports Robbins.
Attorney Steve Vaccaro, who represents the Liaos, has been raising the profile of DMV safety hearings in a series of Streetsblog posts. He gave this statement in response to the DMV's decision:
On behalf of the Liao family and the many others who have lost family members to traffic violence, I welcome the news that the New York State DMV has revoked the license of Ahmed Abu-Zayedeh, who struck and killed 3 year old Ally Liao in the crosswalk while she crossed with the right of way, hand-in-hand with her grandmother. This sanction cannot compensate for the harm caused -- nothing can. But it affirms our shared understanding that driving is a privilege, not a right, to be forfeited when thoughtless or reckless acts cause grave harm.
Currently, DMV does not appear to be adhering to its policy of holding safety hearings within one year of a fatal crash. The hearing for Abu-Zayedeh happened 15 months after the crash that killed Allie Liao. The safety hearing to review the license of Leonardo Degianni, who killed cyclist Mathieu Lefevre more than three years ago, in October 2011, is scheduled for January 27. Even these delayed hearings may not have happened without public pressure from Vaccaro and victims' families.
One of the planks in Families For Safe Streets' DMV reform agenda is to hold these hearings promptly and transparently, with quarterly reports about outcomes. The decision to revoke Abu-Zayedeh's license is a sign that these reforms matter and can keep dangerous drivers off the streets.
