GRANDMOTHER MOWED DOWN BY CAB DRIVER

 Posted on November 12, 2015 in Personal Injury

A 75-year-old grandmother was killed on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on Sunday by a cab driver who admitted to working an illegal shift.

Salifu Abubkar admitted that he had worked an illegal 16-hour shift as a cab driver when he hit and killed a 75-year-old woman as she crossed the street on the corner of Columbus Avenue and West 109^th Street. She was in the crosswalk and had the light.

The cab driver, a resident of the Bronx, passed a Breathalyzer test, but admitted to working a 16-hour shift, four hours longer than the legal12-hour limit imposed by the City of New York on livery drivers. Mr. Abubkar worked as a cab driver for over 20 years and routinely worked over 16hours per day to make a living.

Mayor de Blasio’s “Vision Zero” Plan has garnered mixed results. Since Halloween, traffic-related incidents have claimed 11 lives.The Vision Zero plan-a traffic plan originating in Sweden in the late 1990s with the goal of reducing the number of traffic fatalities to zero-mandates increased police enforcement and has resulted in police issuing over 12,000 more speeding tickets than last year. However,it remains to be seen whether de Blasio’s plan to slap drivers with more fines will result in fewer pedestrian deaths.