The two yellow-cab taxi drivers who fatally struck a Boston College student on the Upper East Side lied to the police when they said she was jaywalking and should be off the streets, relatives said at City Hall Wednesday.
“The cab drivers said she was jaywalking. When she was hit, she was thrown outside the crosswalk,” said Kelly Gordon’s devastated aunt, Lori Centrella, 51, said before a City Hall hearing.
Centrella was there to support a traffic-safety bill called Cooper’s Law, which would suspend drivers’ TLC licenses if they are given a safety-related summons in a crash where a person is critically hurt or dies.
It was named after 9-year-old Cooper Stock, killed on the Upper West Side in January when a cabby allegedly didn’t yield to him in a crosswalk.
“People can drive even if they have killed someone,” said his mom Dana Lerner.
The City Council will vote on the legislation in May.
Gordon, 22, of Brielle, NJ, was hit by one cab while crossing York Avenue at East 84th Street on April 10. She was thrown into the opposite lane, where a second cab hit her.
Grieving sister Ali Axt, 24, said she was crossing the street with Kelly when she was struck.
“We were in the crosswalk,” said Axt, who wants the drivers off the road. “We’re devastated.”
The cabdrivers in the Upper East Side crash did not receive any summonses, but Gordon’s family hopes they will be prosecuted.
Law-enforcement sources said investigators believe Gordon was north of the crosswalk, and walking against the light before the crash.
But their investigation is ongoing.
Gordon was staying with her sister after interviewing for her dream job earlier that day with a prestigious Wall Street firm.
Her father, Donald, said it was difficult to attend the hearing now.
“I am doing it for my daughter,” he told The Post. “She had everything going for her. She was an amazing child.”
Centrella said the loss was also devastating to Gordon’s college sweetheart, whose mom attended the hearing to show support.
The couple started dating the first week of freshman year, and would have graduated together in two weeks. “She was madly in love with him,” she said.