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A Con Ed employee was found guilty of careless driving after he struck and killed 88-year-old Stella Huang while turning left at Avenue C and E. 16th Street. The NYS DMV revoked his license for one month. Image: Google Maps
A Con Ed employee who fatally struck a Manhattan senior and was found guilty of careless driving had his license revoked for one month by the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles.
Andrew Franco hit 88-year-old Stella Huang with a Con Ed truck while making a left turn at Avenue C and E. 16th Street. The crash occurred at around 5:15 p.m. on November 27, 2013, a day when New York City motorists killed four pedestrians and one cyclist.
The Daily News reports that in August, nearly three years after the crash, the DMV revoked Franco’s license “after hearings and an appeal.”
In New York State, a license revocation means a motorist may apply to have his driving privileges reinstated after a prescribed period of time, which is normally a minimum of six months. Though according to the Daily News Franco was found guilty of failing to exercise due care — which likely means Huang was walking with the right of way when he killed her — the DMV deemed Franco eligible to get his license back after one month.
The News reports that Franco filed a lawsuit because the DMV isn’t processing his application for reinstatement quickly enough.
Franco’s lawyer, Michael McNulty, says the delay is “shocking to the conscience,” particularly since Franco has a good record and needs the license to work. He is asking the court to reduce the penalty to a suspension so Franco’s license could be reinstated immediately.
When a license is revoked, the DMV may or may not decide to restore driving privileges. A revocation is more severe than a suspension, which allows a driver to get his license back after a certain period of time simply by paying a fee. Essentially, then, Franco’s attorney is arguing that since the DMV could not make a reinstatement determination at the end of one month, the revocation for killing a person while failing to exercise due care should be invalidated.
We’ve asked Con Ed if Franco continued to drive a truck for the company after he killed Stella Huang and was found guilty of careless driving, and if he may keep driving for Con Ed if he gets his license back. We also asked for info on Con Ed’s driver safety protocols. We’ll update this post if we get an answer.
Franco’s lawyer, Michael McNulty, says the delay is “shocking to the conscience,” particularly since Franco has a good record…
This is like when Giuliani says over and over that there were no major terrorist attacks under George W Bush.
Though according to the Daily News Franco was found guilty of failing to exercise due care — meaning Huang was walking with the right of way when he killed her
That’s not what it means to fail to exercise due care. Motorists are required to exercise due care even to avoid colliding with pedestrians who are in the wrong.
If Huang indeed was crossing with the signal, and therefore Franco was required by law to yield, why wasn’t he found guilty for failure to yield as well as for failure to exercise due care?
Nice wide open intersection, no need for any design changes here. Nothing that could be done with an additional $50 million from the City Council.
NYS DMV: “Meh. She was 88 and was probably going to die soon anyway. Feel free to continue driving, sir… Next!”
You’re right. That’s not what it means. But in practice, if NYPD has ever charged a motorist with failure to use due care after hitting a person who was not crossing with the right of way, I’ve never seen it.
Often a driver will be charged with multiple offenses but will be found guilty only of the “top” charge. But I don’t know that that’s what happened here. Court records are not online now, if they ever were.
Well, NYPD is a violent lawless crime gang. Some of the cops in real police departments in the rest of the state do occassionally arrest motorists for killing jaywalkers.
I think DMV can be reformed; I think failing to revoke licenses is just habit with DMV, and the judges seem properly disturbed by how easy it is for reckless killer drivers to get back on the road.
Franco’s actions are shoking to the conscience and Franco has a record as a careless, reckless killer, which is what should be pointed out.
Over the last few years, advocates have called for standardized practices from DMV to suspend or revoke the licenses of drivers whose recklessness behind the wheel leads to serious injury or death. But a review of recent hearings after fatal crashes reveals no apparent rhyme or reason to the penalties for deadly driving meted out by DMV.	
A driver with a revoked license killed a senior in Brooklyn Tuesday. As of Wednesday he was not charged by NYPD or District Attorney Ken Thompson for causing a death. The crash occurred in the 67th Precinct, where motorists have killed at least three pedestrians this year, and at least seven pedestrians since January 2013. […]	
A driver with a staggering record of recklessness, who nevertheless had a valid New York State driver’s license, was sentenced to jail time and had his license revoked for the death of Manhattan pedestrian Jean Chambers. Roberto Mercado hit Chambers while making a left turn at West End Avenue and W. 95th Street in the […]	
Routes will be streamlined and optimized, creating faster commutes for Staten Island express bus riders.
The MTA's plan will increase service frequency on key routes, simplify routes so buses make fewer turns, reduce the number of stops in both Manhattan and Staten Island. Image: MTA
Staten Island’s express buses are getting a complete overhaul, MTA officials and Borough President James Oddo announced yesterday. These changes will save people time by better aligning bus service with travel patterns — and they could be a template for bus network improvements citywide.
Staten Island express buses, which carry riders to Manhattan job centers, are plagued by reliability problems. The routes also have too many stops — 27 on average before even leaving the island, despite the fact that 83 percent of riders board at 50 percent of those stops. In Manhattan, they’re often stuck in congestion getting from Lower Manhattan to Midtown, even though only 4 percent of riders get on or off in between.
The MTA’s plan, set for implementation in 2018, will increase service frequency on key routes, simplify routes so buses make fewer turns, reduce the number of stops in both Manhattan and Staten Island, and shift some bus travel from local streets to highways [PDF].
MTA Interim Executive Director Ronnie Hakim told the Advance the changes will yield “increased reliability, lower travel times, better frequency of service, [and] better headways” for Staten Island commuters. Next up is a public feedback period over the next few months.
Two years ago, Oddo asked the agency to review Staten Island’s outmoded bus network, which has remained mostly unchanged since the 1960s. A plan to overhaul the borough’s local bus routes is also in the works.
In addition to three public workshops, the MTA surveyed 2,000 riders and partnered with NYU’s Rudin Center and TransitCenter for a hackathon last spring, where participants used MTA Bus Time data to shape proposals for service improvements, elements of which were reflected in the plan released yesterday.
Staten Island accounts for 5 percent of the city’s bus riders, but the MTA’s work there bodes well for the other 95 percent too, said Jon Orcutt and Tabitha Decker of TransitCenter.
In the past, MTA studies of bus service have been limited to smaller areas, like Co-Op City and northeastern Queens. With the Staten Island plan, Orcutt said, the MTA is thinking bigger and developing “best practices” that could eventually be part of a “rolling program” to improve bus networks across the city.
TransitCenter has provided the research muscle for the New York City Bus Turnaround Coalition, which is advocating for citywide improvements to reverse flagging bus ridership. Optimizing stop spacing and redesigning routes, as in the Staten Island plan, are two of the coalition’s key recommendations.
Great stuff! It’s smart to do this demonstration starting with Staten Island express buses, where stakes are lower. Maybe do Staten island local buses next, then expand the effort to the other boroughs. I would caution, though, that express buses are a very different beast than local buses,
The MTA proposal is just a start. I think the x2, x3, x9 New Dorp Terminal should be retained, as well as Madison Avenue / Lexington Avenue and Water Street service. I agree that some express bus stops can be eliminated on SI. Northbound Cannon Blvd can be retained but Ebbitts Avenue can be eliminated, they are two short block apart and Cannon has the larger bus shelter and a wider sidewalk. MTA needs to provide better documentation. The SI map is decent but the Manhattan map lacks street names.
MTA said that the local bus proposals will be next but did not give a timeline for a release. S.I. has no true street grid which makes new or altered local routes somewhat difficult to design. After the Dongan Hills SIR station was made wheelchair-accessible the S52 was supposed to be extended eastward to Richmond Road along Seaview Avenue (returning via Garretson Ave) to connect with the station – that was about 20 years ago and still no extension.
Interesting. You don’t necessarily need a rigid grid to create a good bus network. I think you mainly need high frequency on a number of roughly parallel routes (maybe north-south or southwest-northeast), and high frequency on a number of generally perpendicular routes.
Taking a train from Princeton University to New York City is always convenient but sometimes it take long due to delays. http://www.daisylimo.com/princeton_nj.html however, there is no cheaper option unless pay more for car service.
When it comes to Staten Island, the Department of Transportation and MTA are considering a different model for Select Bus Service. The service planned for Hylan Boulevard will provide dedicated bus lanes for less of the route than on existing SBS lines, but high-tech features like transit-friendly traffic lights and even a possible pilot of […]