Volume 21, Number 41 | The Newspaper of Lower Manhattan | February 20 – 26, 2009
Preschooler’s family starts petition
More than 7,800 people have signed an online petition asking the district attorney to press charges against the driver whose van backed over Hayley Ng, 4, and Diego Martinez, 3, a month ago in Chinatown.
May Cheung, Hayley’s mother, started the petition on Feb. 3, frustrated that the driver, Chao Fu, 52, was not even issued a ticket for allowing his China Chalet delivery van to run onto the sidewalk Jan. 22. Some witnesses said Chao was in the van when it hit the children, but police later said it was unoccupied, an account Hayley’s family doubts.
Eddie Der, Hayley’s uncle, said Cheung wants to picket the D.A.’s office but the family is advising her to focus on grief counseling instead.
“We’re hoping the D.A. will do something,” Der said. The lack of action, he added, “is totally incredible.”
Alicia Maxey Greene, spokesperson for the D.A., said the investigation is ongoing and declined to comment further.
Der has exchanged several e-mails with Linda Jones-Janneh in the D.A.’s office, asking why the D.A. pressed charges after deaths in the 2007 fire at the Deutsche Bank building and the 2008 Midtown crane collapse, but is not pressing charges now.
“These cases are very different,” Jones-Janneh replied in an e-mail, which Der provided to Downtown Express.
—Julie Shapiro
