FLUSHING — The driver who ran over a 3-year-old girl as she crossed the street with her grandmother will be unable to get behind the wheel for five years — or face a $100,000 fine, according to a settlement.
Driver Ahmad Abu-Zayedeh will also surrender 75 percent of his net worth and has acknowledged he was responsible for Allison Liao's death in an apology letter, the family's lawyer said.
Abu-Zayedeh was never criminally charged for hitting Liao on Oct. 6, 2013, in Flushing as he made a left turn, so the Liao family could only file a civil suit against him, lawyer Steve Vaccaro said.
He originally blamed the 3-year-old for the crash, saying she broke free from her grandmother. And he refused to watch dashboard camera footage of the moment he hit her in the intersection — video that has since been used by the city to push for better traffic safety.
"He has now finally recanted that lie and the family (and in particular, Ally's grandmother) can now find some peace," Vaccaro said.
If he tries to obtain a driver's license or drives a car before 2020, he'll have to pay $100,000 to the Liao family as punishment, according to the settlement.
The Liao family became fierce advocates for improved traffic safety in the wake of their daughter's death, work that was honored last week with a street renaming.
The corner of Main Street and Cherry Avenue, where Liao died, is now renamed "Allison Hope Liao Way" and is a marker of her influence, her family said.
"This really validates that she did make a difference, even though she was only 3 and a half years old," her dad Hsi-Pei Liao said.
