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Tossed Shopping Cart Could Have Been Prevented With Stricter Rules
By
Garth Johnston
Published Nov 4, 2011
Modified Nov 4, 2011
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Nov 4, 2011
Modified Nov 4, 2011
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The two 12-year-old boys charged with pushing a Target shopping cart from a fourth-floor walkway onto 47-year-old Upper West Side mother Marion Salmon Hedges this weekend returned to family court today with lots of questions, according to their lawyer. If convicted, the boys each face 18 months in a juvenile detention center. Meanwhile it has come out that the walkway the boys are said to have thrown the cart from would have been illegal if it had only been built by the city.
According to officials if the walkway had been on city property it would have had to have had an 8' foot fence around it, but because it was built by a private developer it didn't have to. So naturally City Council members are trying to change the rules. "Something has to be done to protect pedestrians on the sidewalks below," Councilman James Vacca (D-Bronx), chairman of the Transportation Committee, said Thursday. He is now introducing legislation that will make the rules the same for private developers as it is for the city.
Not everyone thinks that is a great idea, however. David Blumenfeld, the building's builder, points out to the News that the walkway's walls are already 42" high (shoulder height for the alleged cart pushers) and that there was no way architects could have seen this coming. "I don’t think people designed for [accidents like] this," he said. "You can’t anticipate an act like this."
Meanwhile, the boys returned to family court today and one of their lawyers told the judge that her client had "a lot of questions" about his fate and really wants to go home (he's been in a juvenile detention center run by ACS since Sunday). "He's 12 years old, he reacts like a 12-year-old in terms of understanding where he is, why he's here," she said. Further, she says the boys mother is "very nervous" but has sympathy for Hedges family. "As a mother and as a person, her heart goes out for this woman," the lawyer said. "I just hope we remember that this is a 12-year-old and this is tragic, it really is."
Hedges has been in a coma at Harlem Hospital since the incident. When speaking to the press earlier this week her husband has emphasized the young age of her alleged assailants. "They’re children, and children who have been left on their own without supervision," he said. "Right now my focus is on my wife’s well being."
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Garth Johnston
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