BY
Dan Rivoli
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, July 7, 2015, 12:24 AM
Daniel Barry/Getty ImagesAn MTA report found that bus driver Theresa Gallagher could have avoided the pedestrian if she drove slower.
Bus driver Theresa Gallagher could have avoided hitting John Lavery if she made a left turn at 5 mph, instead of between 11 and 15 mph, like the Metropolitan Transportation Authority instructs, according to the findings.
Lavery was also walking in the darkness of a broken street light, which the MTA said contributed to the deadly collision.
Nonetheless, the MTA found that if Gallagher, 62, was turning slower and had her foot on the brake, “it is possible that she would have had sufficient time to visually search and detect the pedestrian,” the report said.
She was arrested under the city’s Right of Way law, which hits drivers with misdemeanor charges for avoidable crashes that severely injure or kill a pedestrian.
Transport Workers Union Local 100 President John Samuelsen said the report vindicates Gallagher, stressing that she was driving well under the city’s speed limit.
“She didn’t break any laws to have been arrested,” he said.
Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily NewsThe bus driver was arrested under the city’s Right of Way law, which hits drivers with misdemeanor charges for avoidable crashes that severely injure or kill a pedestrian.
“Between the blind spot and the darkness of the intersection I don’t think a reasonable person would think that the accident was preventable,” he said.
Transportation Alternatives, safe streets advocates, blasted the TWU for using the investigation to exonerate the driver.
“Making a turn into a crosswalk at two to three times the proper speed in a 40-foot bus during the pedestrian walk phase is precisely the type of negligent behavior the city’s Right of Way law seeks to deter.”