A beloved Fort Greene mother of three was killed last Thursday when her Vespa was slammed by a speeding SUV that witnesses said ran a red light.
Aileen McKay-Dalton, 40, was on Dekalb Avenue at around 5:25 pm when the Ford Explorer, heading north on Clinton Avenue, plowed into her blue scooter. Witnesses said that McKay-Dalton had the green light.
“She was already in the intersection when he hit her,” said witness Tara Simoncic, adding that the menacing vehicle “was going faster than the speed limit.”
Simoncic said that two other witnesses “were pretty adamant” that McKay-Dalton, who was wearing a helmet, had the green light, though police have said that there was no crime committed.
Councilwoman Letitia James (D–Fort Greene) didn’t parse words in a statement released after the accident.
“A 40-year-old woman traveling by motor scooter was struck by an SUV vehicle that ran a red light near DeKalb and Clinton Avenues,” the councilwoman said.
A native of Scotland, McKay-Dalton leaves an 8-year-old daughter, two sons ages 3 and 6, and a husband, Michael Dalton, who met his future wife while the pair was still in high school in Scotland.
“She was everything,” he told the Daily News.
Family friend Pat Gleason described the dead woman as well liked and active in her community.
“She was truly larger than life,” he said. “She was extremely witty and funny.”
McKay-Dalton was very involved with the Northside Catholic Academy in Williamsburg, which her children attended before the family moved to Fort Greene two years ago. By all accounts, McKay-Dalton threw herself just as actively into the life of her new community, riding her beloved Vespa through the neighborhood and to and from the Brooklyn Heights Montessori School in Cobble Hill, where her children are now enrolled.
The identity of the SUV driver is a matter of some speculation. The Daily News reported that witnesses saw the man wearing a gun holster and that the car was registered to the Treasury Department. However, the accident report obtained by The Brooklyn Paper said the car — driven by a 29-year-old Louisiana man — was registered to Metro Property Appraisers, a Manhattan firm that does not show up in phone or business listings.
The Treasury Department declined to comment. In the meantime, James hounded the NYPD to step up the investigation in light of the allegation that the driver ran the red light.
“The NYPD must investigate the circumstances of this incident, and communicate openly with the victim’s family, my office, and the community at large,” she said.
Pressed repeatedly, the NYPD declined to go beyond its ruling that no crime was committed in the accident.
James’s office organized a vigil scheduled for this afternoon at the crash site to press for an investigation. Simoncic, the witness, wasn’t holding her breath for a full analysis of what happened, given how she was treated at the crime scene.
“The officer told me, ‘You can stay or you can go, I don’t really care,’ ” she said. She stayed, and the officer eventually took her statement.