FURY: Kin of Roxana Sorina Buta (above) are enraged that dump-truck driver Harry Robinson (inset) got off scot-free in her mowdown death in Union Square. (
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A year after a horrific hit-and-run killed an aspiring actress walking near Union Square, the city employee behind the wheel has gotten off scot-free, The Post has learned.
Harry Robinson, 64, a $105,000-a-year highway repairman for the Department of Transportation, drove the city-owned, 10-wheel Mack dump truck that ran over and crushed Roxana Sorina Buta, 21 — then kept going.
Despite heavy press coverage, Robinson did not turn himself in. Cops tracked him down eight days later after a bank security video captured the truck on tape.
On March 18 — 10 months after her death — police slapped Robinson with two summonses, for “failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk,” and “failure to exercise due care.”
But in court last week, he was found not guilty of both.
The news stunned Buta’s mother, Cristina Oprea.
“They took his word and left me with nothing,” the distraught mom said. “How do they explain that someone can kill a young girl and get away with it?”
Buta, who studied and performed at T. Schreiber acting studio, left her job as a waitress at Bar 6 at 1:26 a.m. on May 24, 2012. It was a rainy Tuesday, and she walked toward the subway.
The light at West 14th and Broadway turned green, and she stepped into the crosswalk. The intersection was dark and had a dip in the asphalt off the curb.
Robinson turned right at an unknown speed, and his truck plowed into Buta.
Police said Buta had a blood-alcohol level of .06, below the .08 level of impairment, and was talking on her cellphone.
But her mom’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, says records show no calls at the time.
The Manhattan DA’s Office told Oprea seven months ago that they would not charge the driver with a crime.
Officials told Oprea the driver claimed he never saw Buta and “we have no proof” he was aware of the impact.
Oprea has set up a shrine to her only child — a National Honor Society student who sang, danced and starred in four musicals at Hillside HS in New Jersey. Besides photos of the Romanian-born beauty, plus candles and a gold urn holding her ashes, there is one blue leather shoe Buta wore that night and the tattered tote she carried.
“Roxi was my life, the reason I woke up every day,” Oprea said. “She was the best daughter a mother could have. She could have done so much for the world.
“Because a guy . . . didn’t pay attention, I have to go on living without her. I can tell you what hell means.”
Reached outside his Brooklyn apartment, Robinson, a 14-year DOT employee, refused to say anything about the tragedy.
Oprea has filed a wrongful-death suit against the city, DOT and Mack trucks.