Dana Lerner (second from right) and friends remember Cooper Stock.
A group of friends and family gathered on Tuesday morning to remember Cooper Stock, the 9-year-old boy who was hit and killed by a cab driver at 97th Street and West End Avenue on this day in 2014. Cooper, a student at Calhoun, had lots of friends and loved basketball, so they put a basketball at the center of a small makeshift memorial.
His mother Dana Lerner has become an advocate for street safety. The intersection is now named for Cooper.
Lynda Rath, a friend of the Stock/Lerner family, sent in these photos and a description of the event.
At 8am today, a small group gathered on the corner of 97th and West End Ave, in front of 771 WEA, to remember Cooper Stock, the 9 year old boy who was run over by a taxi and killed on this day today 3 years ago.
Three candles were lit, a basketball was placed next to a tree with flowers and petals and a note reading:
1-10-17
Cooper
We miss you every day….
our hearts are still heavy…
fly on, little wing…we love you.Dana Lerner and her brother Barron Lerner, attended with a small group of close friends.
The corner of 97th and West End Ave is missing the Delineators Flexible (Plastic) Posts used as road markers.
I guess safety is not all that important.
Those posts have been removed by ConEd to make space for their fleet of trucks for some major repairs on WEA/97th.
Other than that, you’re right – even with the posts in place it has become a marshalling yard for UPS, FedEx, USPS, moving trucks etc., thus severly blocking the view of the intersection for traffic turning south onto WEA.
Just returned home from the CB7 Community Board Transportation Committee Meeting and, rest assured, no one knew what was going on there, other than the 3rd change to fix the intersection. Not the Committee and not the DOT rep.
But one member did acknowledge that “you could get killed crossing, even if there was only one car”.
My heart goes out to the family. This could happen to anyone of our children and we need to be vigilant about keeping our streets safe. God bless the family…
Yes. That poor sweet boy. God bless the family.
It was a tragedy that he was hit but nothing was done to prevent another such tragedy from happening. To wit: proper licensing and vetting of taxi drivers and proper criminal sentencing for drivers who kill pedestrians. The cabbie should be in prison for manslaughter.
Sorry, eliminating valuable parking spaces on WEA is not going to get it done.
“removing park spots” in the name of safe street design actually has reduced crashes across NYC.
This was and is the most heartbreaking tragedy. What has become of the killer(who was given a slap on the wrist at the time).
“Cab driver Koffi Komlani was ticketed for failing to yield.”
The cross walk itself is sacred space. Drivers still “refuse to yield”, the law states that when entering a crosswalk a driver has to yield, not when a a pedestrian is just off the curb or in the middle of the crosswalk, or towards the end of the crosswalk, but anywhere in the crosswalk. Drivers constantly run red lights, race or navigate through crossing bodies, speed around older pedestrians or turn blindly, it is a sad loss that precious life is taken by a man in a hurry. It’s mindlessness behind the wheel and complete disdain for the rights of pedestrians that cause accidents such as these. There is no justification for lack of social consciousness. A pedestrian always has the right of way.
With an intact social contract “A pedestrian always has the right of way.”
Increasingly, drivers assert the power of their car.
The problem with that specific intersection is that it’s a common cross town route for drivers coming from the east side, trying to get to WEA or the highway. Drivers fly across 97 st between CPW and WEA trying to make the lights. And since 97th and WEA is the second to last light before they get onto the highway, they tend to be even more reckless. I’ve witnessed this many times. I think more precautions on 97th such as speedbumps, signs, or a camera are necessary. My heart goes out to this boys family.