A Lyft driver and two buddies he had simply picked up after an evening out in Washington DC have died after being struck by an SUV fleeing a visitors cease, in response to a report.
Now, the households of these killed are demanding solutions about why the SUV, which had racked up greater than $12,000 in unpaid visitors tickets, was allowed on the street.
Olvin Torres Velásquez, 23, had simply completed his 14-hour shift at a restaurant in Arlington and was telling his coworkers how excited he was to see his dwelling nation of Honduras play soccer that night time, reported The Washington Put up.
After watching Honduras lose, Velasquez and his outdated pal, Jonathan Cabrera Mendez, went out for a late-night chunk in DC, Valesquez’s kinfolk informed the newspaper.
After an evening out, the couple known as Lyft within the early hours of Wednesday morning and had been picked up by driver Mohamed Kamara, 42.
As they had been driving dwelling on Rock Creek Parkway in Kamara’s Honda, an SUV driver fleeing a visitors cease crashed into the Lyft, killing all three inside, in response to police.
The 2 occupants of the van, a person and a lady, had been transported to hospitals with non-life-threatening accidents, police stated. The motive force’s id has not been launched and no legal costs have been filed as of Saturday.
The SUV had been cited for $12,300 in unpaid shifting violations, most of them for dashing, in response to visitors data obtained by WaPo. The tragic accident has sparked a debate over whether or not the capital metropolis ought to do extra to maintain repeat offenders off the roads.
Leslie Torres, a cousin of Torres Velásquez, informed the newspaper that the household is “outraged.”
“This particular person owed $12,000 in fines, for dashing. Why have not the authorities achieved one thing?” Torres requested.
DC councilmember Charles Allen, who chairs the council’s transportation planning board, informed WaPo the District ought to contemplate decreasing the brink for reckless driving and beginning extra vehicles.
If a police officer stops a driver and points a ticket in particular person in DC, the shifting violation may end up in some extent on the motive force’s license and, if sufficient factors are amassed, the lack of the license, in response to the Washington Put up. .
Nonetheless, if the violations are caught on a velocity digital camera as was the case with the SUV concerned within the crash, the car can rack up fines that the automobile proprietor should pay however can hold their licenses.
If a car has amassed two or extra unpaid tickets that haven’t been contested after 30 days, the District has the authority as well, tow or impound them, WaPo reported. However that solely occurs if a visitors officer sees the car parked in a public place.
The jump-start and tow crew was severely understaffed final 12 months, Allens stated.
Mohamed Fofana, Kamara’s 44-year-old brother-in-law, stated the lethal crash involving such a flagrant visitors violator reveals “a lapse within the system.”
“I do not need one other household to undergo what we’re going by. This didn’t must occur, ”he informed the newspaper.
Leslie Torres stated the grieving household is struggling to pay for the physique to be shipped to Honduras whereas awaiting extra particulars on the investigation.
“If that particular person had so many tickets, it meant that that particular person was a hazard on the streets and eventually this was going to occur,” Leslie Torres stated by tears. “Why did not they act? We ask ourselves, why?
