Cab driver who struck NYC 9-year-old to lose his taxi license
Koffi Komlani had been driving a cab less than a year when Cooper Stock was killed
The cab driver who struck and killed 9-year-old Cooper Stock on the Upper West Side of Manhattan earlier this year will lose his professional license, New York's Taxi and Limousine Commission said.
Koffi Komlani’s license "will expire as of July 5 and … we have notified him of our intention to decline its renewal,” TLC spokesman Allan Fromberg said in an email to Yahoo News on Friday.
Related: Did Cooper Stock really have to die?
Stock, who died Jan. 10 holding his father’s hand while crossing at the corner of 97th Street and West End Avenue, is one of several pedestrians whose recent deaths have prompted demands for reform of New York City's street design and traffic laws. Groups like Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets are urging adoption of the kind of practices that have reduced traffic deaths substantially in countries like Sweden.
Fromberg said the TLC made its decision “based on Komlani’s status as a probationary driver,” meaning he has had his TLC license for less than one year.
Stock’s parents, Dr. Richard Stock and Dana Lerner, were told Thursday by the Manhattan district attorney’s office that criminal charges would not be brought against Komlani. Lerner said she was relieved by the TLC decision not to renew his license, as her biggest fear was that the cab driver would harm someone else.
Komlani could not be reached for comment. The TLC confirmed he has not driven a taxi in New York since the night of Cooper’s death.
