Drivers losing control: What recourse do victims’ families have?
Last week, Martha Carr Atwater, 48, a well-known Brooklyn Heights resident and Emmy Award-winning TV writer, was struck and ultimately killed by an erratic driver on Clinton Street near Atlantic Avenue. The driver survived.
While the neighborhood and the victim’s family attempts to grapple with this tragedy, authorities say that the accident may have been preventable. An NYPD source told the New York Post that the 53-year-old driver of the Honda Ridgeline vehicle “may have lost consciousness because of his diabetes.” With the police reporting no immediate criminality, it is not likely that the driver will be arrested or charged in the victim’s death.
The only reprieve, if one is being sought, of the victim’s family is to bring a civil lawsuit against the driver.