ONE VAN ARMY!
COURIER L 32 IFE, JANUARY 10-16, 2020
Mourners gathered in Canarsie on Sunday after a 70-year-old woman
was fatally struck by a car. Photo by Todd Maisel
BY JESSICA PARKS
Police are hunting for the
motorist behind a deadly hitand
run that claimed the life
of a 70-year-old woman in Canarsie
on Friday.
Surveillance video shows
the driver turning their black
Nissan Maxima onto Flatlands
Avenue at around 1 pm,
when the motorist slammed
into Maria Lorente, who was
crossing the street at E. 78th
Street.
The motorist drove off
before authorities arrived
on the scene and took Lorente
to Brookdale Hospital
in Brownsville, where doctors
pronounced her dead,
according to police.
Lorente — a Florida resident,
who was visiting her
family in Brooklyn for the
holidays — was just steps
from her son’s home at the
time of her demise, according
to her grieving child.
“My mother was 70 years
old, and she lived a good life,
but she still had more years
— she was a go getter and
happy person,” said Jose
Tapanes.
BY JESSICA PARKS
A “dollar van” driver
climbed atop his vehicle and
screamed at police for nearly
an hour after offi cers fi ned him
for operating without a license
in Flatbush on Jan. 2, leading to
a rowdy clash between the outlaw
chauffeur’s colleagues and
dozens of police offi cers.
Cops pulled over the alleged
counterfeit cabbie on Flatbush
Avenue near Clarendon Road at
around 8 am, threatening him
with up to $4,000 in fi nes for illegally
transporting two passengers,
according to another dollar
van driver at the scene. The
Taxi and Limousine Commission
later stated that the driver
was only fi ned $500 for driving
an unlicensed cab.
Rather than accept his punishment,
however, the underground
cab driver — known locally
as “The Ranger” — hopped
on top of his van in a fi t of rage
and refused to come down.
The incident proved a fl ash
point amid long-simmering tension
between the “dollar cab”
industry and the city’s Taxi
and Limousine Commission,
according to dozens of drivers,
who rushed to the scene in support
of their colleague turned
folk hero, as he staged his dramatic
demonstration.
“TLC has been harassing us
for years,” said one driver, who
asked not to be named.
While drivers — who typically
charge passengers very
low rates to shuttle them around
— have been legally allowed to
obtain licenses with the commission
since the 1990s, their
high fees have led large swaths
of drivers to continue to operate
underground.
But if authorities catch their
unlicensed operation, the vans
— which rose to prominence
during the 1980 public transit
strike — are subject to hefty
fi nes by commission offi cers.
Authorities eventually
calmed the unruly crowd and
forced the disgruntled driver
off his roof, throwing him on
the ground, strapping him to
a gurney, and taking him to
Kings County Hospital — but
not before he spat on an arresting
offi cer and kicked another
fi rst responder, according to authorities.
Police later slapped the man
with a slew of charges — including
two counts of assaulting
fi rst responders, resisting
arrest, harassment, and disorderly
conduct, authorities
said.
Additional reporting from
Paul Martinka.
Police attempt to coax a “dollar
van” driver from the top of his bus
in Flatbush. Photo by Paul Martinka
Canarsie hit-and-run
Dollar van drivers rally around colleague in police standoff