A woman who allegedly plowed through a stop sign in her car and fatally struck a 7-year-old Queens girl was slapped with criminal charges Tuesday — even as the victim’s devastated dad said he forgives the driver.
Claudia Mendez-Vasque, 46, was charged with criminally negligent homicide in the Feb. 17 death of little Dolma Nadhuum, who was coming home from a park with her older brother and mother when an SUV crashed into her at the intersection of Newtown Road and 45th Street in Astoria, cops said.
The girl was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital where she died.
The tragedy caught the attention of local officials after Dolma’s 11-year-old brother, Tsering Tashi Takgye, begged the city to put up a traffic light at the intersection in a heartbreaking change.org petition that garnered more than 32,000 signatures.
The city Department of Transportation announced last month that the corner would receive a light following the grief-stricken family’s plea.
While the girl’s father, Tsering Wangu, previously expressed happiness at the light being installed, he told The Post on Tuesday that he had pleaded with authorities not to pursue charges against the driver.
“Whatever the city rules, they have to do that but from my side, I told them to not charge her. I forgive her already,” he said.
“It was involuntary,” Wangu said of the motorist running the stop sign.
“I don’t want to hurt her. If I charge her, I’m hurting her and her family. I don’t want that. Whatever I suffer, it’s for me and my family, and we’ll handle it in any way,” added Wangu, who runs a Buddhist store.
“We don’t let other people suffer,” he added.
The DOT has said the woman ran a stop sign and wasn’t properly licensed – she had a learner’s permit, but did not have a licensed adult in the car like she was supposed to.
She also had a legal amount of alcohol in her system after the crash, the department said.
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