Police say the driver of an MTA bus that hit and killed a woman in Brooklyn Tuesday morning faces felony and misdemeanor criminal charges.
The NYPD says they responded to a call at about 6 a.m. for a woman lying on the pavement at the intersection of Sackman and Fulton streets in Cypress Hills.
Officials say the bus hit 70-year-old Carol Bell while making a right turn onto Fulton.
Bell is the second pedestrian to be killed by an MTA bus this year. There were six fatalities involving pedestrians and city buses last year.
The MTA says the driver, identified as 48-year-old Paul Roper, was suspended without pay. They say the bus was not in service at the time.
Officials say the driver had finished a run on the B15 route and was returning to the depot in East New York.
Roper was charged with leaving the scene of an accident, failure to yield to pedestrian and failure to exercise due care.
The NYPD says leaving the scene of an accident is a felony charge because it resulted in Bell's death. Failure to yield to a pedestrian is a misdemeanor, and failure to excercise due care is a traffic violation in this case, according to police.
"This is a terrible tragedy, and our hearts and prayers go out to all family and friends," TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen said. "We will closely follow the investigation, which is in a very early stage."
Last winter and spring, the union protested the arrests of drivers who had been charged with failure to yield under a package of laws enacted as part of Mayor Bill de Blasio's "Vision Zero" program to end pedestrian and cyclist fatalities. The strict enforcement of those laws became a sore point with transit workers. The city agreed to address some of the union's concerns.