By Della Hasselle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER EAST SIDE — New York lawmakers are outraged that stricter traffic laws weren't enforced after an Upper East Side student was killed by a dump truck illegally backing up on Madison Avenue on Tuesday.
The death of Jason King, 21, has prompted the author of Elle's Law, Assemblyman Micah Z. Kellner, to call on the District Attorney to punish the truck driver under the terms the law lays out. The law, which was created after a 3-year-old girl was put into a coma last year by a driver backing up illegally, demands that anyone who strikes a pedestrian while driving recklessly have their license suspended.
The 51-year-old man who ran over King received only a summons from police.
"The whole point of Elle's law was to take dangerous drivers like this one off the road," Kellner said in a statement. "But the law only works if it's enforced."
DNAinfo commenters were also upset by the NYPD's lax law enforcement.
"The driver's not expected to be charged, eh? I've seen it written, 'If you want to kill somebody, use a motor vehicle because you'll get off scott free,'" user "Eli" said after the accident Tuesday. "Pay attention to these stories over time and you'll begin to see just how sadly true that statement is."
King, a student at LaGuardia Community College, was on his way to work at the bakery EAT, located at Madison Ave. between 80th and 81st streets, when he was hit by the dump truck. The truck dragged him for 30 feet before the driver stopped, police said.
The day of the incident, King's co-workers took a few moments to remember him.
"He always made me smile," Harlem resident Annie Cosme, 23, said. "It's really sad to see him gone."
