[UPDATE BELOW] The driver who struck and killed a 12-year-old boy in Harlem yesterday was behind the wheel of an Uber-affiliated car, but it's unclear whether the vehicle was registered to him.
The victim, Ervi Secundino, was struck at around 3 p.m. yesterday while crossing Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard at 150th Street. The driver, who the NYPD described to us as a 23-year-old male from Brooklyn, stayed at the scene and has not been charged with a crime. Taxi and Limousine Commission spokesperson Allan Fromberg told Capital New York that the car was affiliated to an Uber base, but Uber has not confirmed that the man behind the wheel was in fact an Uber driver.
The TLC has not yet responded to request for comment, and an Uber spokesperson declined to comment on record.
Ervi, who lived on West 145th Street with his mother and siblings, was a sixth grader at the Frederick Douglass Academy located across the street from where he was struck. Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña said in a statement that she was “heartbroken by this tragedy,” adding, "Ervi’s family is in my thoughts as they mourn the unbearable loss of a child so young. I also want to extend my deepest condolences to the entire Frederick Douglas Academy community."
A crossing guard told reporters that the driver was speeding when he struck Ervi—she added that she had not waved the boy across the street, as the red light was blinking at the time. "He didn’t have the light, he just ran right across the street and that’s when the car just hit him. He flew up and landed on the car. That’s how the car is dented,” she told 1010 WINS.
Update 12:09 p.m.: The TLC has confirmed that the involved car "does appear to be a properly-licensed vehicle, affiliated to a licensed black car base operated by Uber under the name Danach." According to a source at the commission, the driver is not a TLC-licensed Uber driver.
