By Christina Santucci
The heartbroken husband of a woman crushed by an MTA bus in Oakland Gardens last week is pleading for witnesses to the incident to come forward so he can understand the circumstances surrounding his wife’s death.
Cheng-Chiu Fang, 55, had been on her way home from work at about 6:30 p.m. when she was struck by the back of a QM3 bus as it made a lefthand turn from 73rd Avenue onto Springfield Boulevard last Thursday, according to the NYPD and her husband.
“I know she is very careful about the traffic light; she does everything carefully,” said 60-year-old Jiann Hua Fang, Fang’s husband.
Jiann Hua Fang asked anyone who saw what happened to come forward as he awaited the results of a police investigation.
“I hope the witnesses call me. That’s my only hope,” he said.
Jiann Hua Fang described his wife, who worked in business accounting with Cathay Bank, as bright and a loving mother to their three sons, who are in their 20s.
A neighbor who asked not to be identified said “she was the backbone of that family.”
Both Cheng-Chiu Fang and her husband were born in Taiwan. Her English name was Corinna and he goes by Jimmy. She was deeply religious and practiced Heaven Dao, he said.
They met while he was studying at SUNY Maritime College in the mid-1980s when a classmate introduced her to him at a get-together. They were married in 1988.
“She had no negatives,” he said.
The night of the accident, Jiann Hua Fang got home later than normal — around 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. — and was told that police were trying to reach him.
After arriving at North Shore Hospital in Manhasset, L.I., he was taken into a family room and learned that Cheng-Chiu Fang had died.
At the time, he was handed his wife’s handbag.
“I’ve never touched my wife’s handbag,” he said. “This is the first time.”
Afterward he was taken to identify his wife.
“I cannot even cry when I see my wife’s body,” he said. “The sense is like hate, like pain, like sorrow.”
Jiann Hua said he hoped to hold a viewing Saturday and a funeral Sunday, but he could not finalize plans until the medical examiner concluded its investigation. He was desperately seeking answers about how his wife could have been killed.
“I am not satisfied with these kind of things,” he said. “I believe my wife is 100 percent correct.”
Jiann Hua Fang said that every morning by 6:50 a.m. he would drop his wife off at a bus stop on Francis Lewis Boulevard and Union Turnpike.
In the evenings, she took the subway and then transferred to a bus to get back.
“You see the corner with my home, that’s less than 100 meters,” he said. “That means five more minutes she would be at home.”
Reach photo editor Christina Santucci by e-mail at timesledgerphotos@gmail.com or by phone at 718-260-4589.
