CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) -
A Chicago cabdriver sentenced to court supervision for fatally striking an elderly pedestrian in Lake View last year has at least three other traffic-related convictions on his record, officials said Wednesday.
Cases like this have prompted a state traffic safety group to re-examine sentences handed out to drivers responsible for fatal crashes.
Mohammed Ahmed, of Chicago, fatally struck 86-year-old Coral Kier about 11 a.m. Aug. 22, 2011, as she was walking in a crosswalk in the 3100 block of North Sheridan Road, police and the Cook County Medical Examiner's office said at the time.
The cab was traveling west on Briar Place and struck her as Ahmed tried to make a left turn, police said. Ahmed, then 40, was ticketed for failure to yield to a pedestrian in the crosswalk and failure to use due care for a pedestrian.
Kier, who lived nearby in the 3500 block of North Lake Shore Drive, died at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center the next day and an autopsy ruled her death an accident, according to the medical examiner's office.
The accident wasn't the first traffic crash involving injuries that Ahmed was deemed responsible for, officials said Wednesday.
His public record with the Illinois Secretary of State's office -- which extends back 4 1/2 years -- shows he was convicted of a Feb. 12, 2009, crash involving injuries, spokeswoman Beth Kaufman said.
When a judge ruled on the traffic court case involving Kier's death, his record showed two other convictions, from 2006 and 2002, according to city Department of Law spokesman Roderick Drew.
Officials could not readily provide his full record of traffic citations Wednesday afternoon.
Ahmed was found guilty of both traffic violations stemming from the Lake View crash, Drew said in an email. Lawyers for the city asked for convictions in both charges so it would go on his driving record and be reported to the Secretary of State's office.
Instead, a judge granted him court supervision and levied $90 fines for each offense, out of a possible $90 to $500 range, Drew said. With court costs, Ahmed was fined roughly $350 in connection with the fatal crash.
The fatal crash does not currently appear on the cabdriver's public driving record because cases that end in court-ordered supervision or a dismissal are not reported to the Secretary of State's office, Kaufman said.
A traffic safety group formed under the Secretary of State's office will be meeting in the upcoming months to promote a provision saying that a sentence of supervision should not be allowed in cases where the driver was involved in a fatal crash, a spokeswoman said.
The move wasn't prompted by Kier's case alone, but from a general trend of traffic court cases in which drivers have received only supervision after a fatal crash.
Kier's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court against Ahmed and his employers -- US M.B.T., Inc. and Yellow Cab Affiliation, Inc. -- in connection with her death.
They claim he drove unreasonably fast and failed to yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian in the crosswalk. The suit also claims the driver did not honk his horn to warn her as he was approaching.
The suit, filed by Brian A. Kier, claims wrongful death and a survival action on behalf of Kier's brother. It seeks at least $100,000 in damages.
