Public Advocate Jumaane Williams on Tuesday called for a crackdown on illegal dollar vans, and urged illicit van operators to take steps to go legit.
Williams — a longtime supporter of the city’s dollar van operators — is pushing the crackdown after an incident Saturday in which a driver with a suspended license operating a van with Pennsylvania plates nearly killed a cyclist at Avenue U and Flatbush Ave. in Brooklyn.
The victim’s bike was lodged beneath the van’s rear after the crash. The cyclist suffered a concussion and several fractured ribs.
The driver, Kwadwo Fosu, 42, tried to run away on foot. Bystanders grabbed him and held him for police, who charged him with leaving the scene of an accident, aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle, failure to exercise due care and failure to yield to a pedestrian.
Fosu and other illegal drivers have a path to legitimize their businesses under a bill Williams helped pass in 2018 when he was on the City Council.
“It’s willful ignorance for people to not choose that (legal) pathway, and they are endangering all of us who are on the street,” said Williams. “They’re not insured and do not have the proper licenses.”
But the process can be lengthy, and involves approvals from the Taxi and Limousine Commission and city Department of Transportation.
The Public Advocate met with the TLC Chair Aloysee Heredia Jarmoszuk Tuesday to lay out an enforcement strategy for the vans, and called on the NYPD to get involved.
There are 213 commuter vans licensed to do business in the city, according to TLC data. Williams said riders should try to only use licensed vans, and said they can be identified by a blue sticker in the window, a city decal on the side and a license plate ending in “BB.”
The number of illegal dollar vans dwarf the legitimate, licensed vans, said Winston Williams, owner of Blackstreet Van Lines, a legal van operator who donated $100 to Jumaane Williams’ election campaign last year.
“There’s a lot of hostility out there towards drivers who are authorized,” Winston Williams said.
The Public Advocate said he used dollar vans on Flatbush Ave. decades ago to get to high school, and that the industry is unlikely to disappear any time soon in neighborhoods that are underserved by subways and buses.
“To the extent they [the Metropolitan Transportation Authority] can’t provide expeditious service to every community, there’s going to be people there to fill that gap,” said Williams. “We want to make sure whoever that is, they’re filling the gap with insurance with licenses and making sure the public is safe.”
