Metro

Mother of boy killed by cab pushes for ‘Cooper’s Law’

The mother of the 9-year-old boy killed by a cab on the Upper West Side last month is pushing for “Cooper’s Law,” a measure she hopes will keep her boy’s memory alive — and spare other families from her inextricable grief.

“I just don’t want his death to be in vain. I don’t want anybody to forget about him,” said Cooper Stock’s mom, Dana Lerner, in an emotional interview last week at the family’s Upper West Side home.

“If there was a Cooper’s Law — a law named after him — that would be something that would be extraordinary and bring us some solace.”

Cooper was coming home from dinner with his dad, Dr. Richard Stock, at around 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 10 when taxi driver Koffi Komlani turned left from 97th Street onto West End Avenue, striking both as they crossed the avenue.

Komlani, 54, was only handed a summons for failure to yield to a pedestrian — a fine that will cost him no more than $300.

Komlani, of upstate Harriman, has not driven since the accident, but could be back behind the wheel any time he chooses, since the Taxi and Limousine Commission suspends a hack license only when a driver racks up six or more points. Failure to yield tacked on three points to Komlani’s otherwise clean license.

Richard Stock and Dana Lerner in the bedroom of their 9-year-old son, Cooper Stock.J.C. RIce

“The city and the TLC — they can care less,” Lerner, 50, fumed. “Nobody from the city or TLC contacted us. I got letters of condolence from all over the world. And nothing — nothing from these people.”

But lawmakers, contacted by The Post this week, are listening.

Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal (D-Upper West Side) told The Post that on Friday, she submitted legislation for the Council to review that would amend the city’s administrative code to allow, pending an investigation, for suspension and automatic revocation of a TLC license if a driver kills or maims someone as a result of a failure to yield.

“I am enthusiastic about naming the law after Cooper,” said Rosenthal, who is planning to meet with the family.

The hope is that Cooper’s Law would initiate instant suspensions and mandatory investigations of cabbies who hit pedestrians and cyclists, in instances where the victims were following the law and mechanical malfunctions were ruled out, noted Cooper’s uncle, Dr. Barron Lerner.

Dana Lerner remembered through tears her spirited son, and the horrible night that changed her family’s life forever.

“I got a phone call from our doorman, and he said something like, ‘Cooper was hit. Cooper was hit by a taxi.’

“I got up, put my shoes on. I ran outside, and I ran into the biggest nightmare that any mother could ever see in our life. Rich was screaming on the ground. I was trying to get to Cooper. I saw him lying on the ground in the middle of the street. I’m crying, ‘That’s my son! That’s my son!’ And they wouldn’t let me get too close to him, and Rich kept saying, ‘It’s not good.’ He was hysterical.  And I said, ‘No, it’s going to be OK, it’s going to be OK.’

“They wouldn’t let us go in the ambulance, so the police officer took us to the hospital. I’ve been in many hospitals — my husband’s a doctor, my father was a doctor, my brother — I know what’s going on. I looked into the room, and there was a whole group of people in there and they were trying to resuscitate him. And I kept saying, ‘Is he breathing?’ And they wouldn’t answer me. After 15 to 20 minutes, they came in and they said, ‘We’re sorry.’

“He looked like an angel. Just like an angel. He looked at peace. Thank God for that. I held him and kissed him, and I felt my life just falling apart.”

She said she has sympathy for Komlani.

“What he did, he did not do intentionally, and I imagine that if he is a good person, he is in hell right now.

“Can I forgive him? That’s not something I can even wrap my brain around. I’m mourning my son, and I’m trying to stay alive. That’s all I can do every day.”

Lerner said she can’t go outside her apartment alone anymore, for fear of passing the spot less than a block away where her son was killed.

“If I have to go out that way, I cover my eyes. I can’t look there. When I do, I see what I saw that night . . . which was this stillness about him.”

In life, Cooper’s energy was boundless. He loved basketball, goofing around with his family, and classic rock — “Little Wing” by Jimi Hendrix was a favorite.

On Wednesday, Cooper was memorialized by the CalhounSchool, which instead of a mid-year review, sent the family a packet filled with teachers’ recollections about him. Printed at the top of the packet was one of the last assignments, a poem he wrote called “Believe”:

Hold fast to dreams
You have to believe
To succeed
So always believe
And hold fast to dreams