‘He just kept going, ‘ said the witness.
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Here is a photo of her walker that was at the scene: Police said the bus, which had been southbound on Sackman Street and turning right to go east on Fulton Street, did not remain at the scene.
The victim, Carol Bell, died when 48-year-old Paul Roper’s bus slammed into her while she was using her walker to cross the street near an intersection in Ocean Hill around 6.15am. Police said that the woman was in the crosswalk at the time she was struck.
The MTA didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment about the accident. Bell, who was pronounced dead at the scene, lived in a women’s shelter one block away from where she was killed.
Roper has been charged with leaving the scene of an accident, failure to yield to pedestrian and failure to exercise due care, police said.
“‘Often, they would take drivers word for it when drivers said, “Oh I didn’t see them” or ‘Oh I didn’t notice when I hit them”.
Roper allegedly turned onto Fulton Street as Bell used her wheeled walker to cross the street.
“We will closely follow the investigation, which is in a very early stage”, he added.
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Last winter and spring, the union protested the arrests of drivers who had been charged with failure to yield under a package of laws enacted as part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “Vision Zero” program to end pedestrian and cyclist fatalities. Authorities said Roper has 15 years on the job, and was driving the bus back to the depot at the time of the crash. “And I think more and more people are getting it”.
