NYPD Tickets Driver After Blaming Staten Island Teen for Her Own Death

After initially blaming the victim in the press, NYPD issued a careless driving summons to the monster truck driver who killed 15-year-old Jenna Daniels as she jogged along a Staten Island street last winter. The department refused to release the driver’s name or disclose how he was penalized, the Staten Island Advance reports.

The driver hit Daniels with a pickup truck as he made a left turn from Hylan Boulevard onto Bayview Avenue in Prince’s Bay on the afternoon of November 15, according to the Advance. Police said Daniels was on Hylan, crossing Bayview from west to east, when she was struck. She suffered severe head trauma and was declared dead on arrival at the hospital.

Photos taken at the scene showed a black Ford F-150 with a raised chassis, oversized aftermarket wheels, a blacked-out grille and front bumper, and tinted headlights. In the photos, the truck is sitting in the street a few yards from the crosswalk.

In November, before completing an investigation, NYPD issued a “preliminary” finding that Daniels was jogging “outside the crosswalk … with headphones in her ears.” Jogging with headphones is legal, and according to attorney Steve Vaccaro, mid-block crossings are permitted on the street where the crash occurred.

While NYPD emphasized Daniels’s actions, the driver’s speed at the time of the collision “was not recorded as part of the CIS report.” The driver was ticketed for tinted windows, but police said they “did not contribute to the crash.”

In November NYPD told the Advance the driver “had the right of way” and that “pedestrian error: crossing outside marked crosswalk” caused the crash. But in March, with a “months-long investigation” complete, the Advance reported that police summonsed the driver for failure to exercise due care.

Despite NYPD’s determination that the motorist was driving carelessly, and the absence of evidence that the victim was breaking traffic rules, an NYPD spokesperson said Daniels “contributed to the collision.”

NYPD continued to shield the driver’s identity and “declined to divulge the driver’s punishment,” the Advance reported.