Driver arrested in crash that killed 6-year-old girl in Dyker Heights

Police say the driver stayed on the scene and has not been charged at this time.

News 12 Staff

Aug 25, 2021, 2:18 AM

Updated 1,218 days ago

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Police say they have arrested and charged the driver involved in a crash that killed a 6-year-old girl in Dyker Heights just steps away from her home.
The accident happened around 8 p.m. Tuesday when police say the driver of a Lexus SUV on 12th Avenue crossed over the double yellow lines, driving on the wrong side of the road against oncoming traffic.
He continued to drive in the wrong direction before turning left at 67th Street, where he struck Hiromi Tamy as she crossing the street with the pedestrian signal in her favor, according to police.
The driver, 30-year-old Giuhua Zhu, of Brooklyn, originally drove off before traveling around the block and returning to the scene.
Zhu is facing multiple charges, including manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, driving in the wrong direction on a one way street, and making an improper left turn on a one-way road, among other charges.
Police say Zhu has no prior criminal record.
Families for Safe Streets member Dana Lerner, whose 9-year-old son Cooper Stock was killed in a crosswalk by a taxi driver who failed to yield in 2014, spoke out against yet another pedestrian fatality this year.
According to the organization, 2021 is on track to have the most fatalities of any year under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s tenure as mayor, with 1,782 people killed by drivers.
"We need Mayor de Blasio and our future mayor to fulfill the promises of Vision Zero. Police enforcement will not get New York City to Vision Zero,” Lerner says. “Victim blaming by the police, as the NYPD did in response to the death of this 6-year-old child, will not get us to Vision Zero. We already know what will get us there — opening streets to people, scaling proven safety measures across every corner of our city, and prioritizing human life over driver’s convenience."
The mayor, when asked about Tamy’s death during his daily press conference, says he “feels horrible that another family is suffering, and so much of this comes down to changing the whole mindset around cars.”
“This is what we’ve been doing for eight years with Vision Zero, we all have to do a lot more,” he says. “People need to use cars less, people need to drive more carefully … Vision Zero is the strategy, and it’s the strategy that we have proven can make a difference, but it’s also been a challenge by COVID and so many people getting back in cars.”
He says we need more mass transit investment and recovery to make people more comfortable ditching their cars.