In an early-morning accident more than four years ago, a homeless woman was run over and crushed by a sport utility vehicle as she slept on the entrance ramp of an Upper East Side parking garage.

The woman has not been identified. The driver, however, is a prominent real-estate executive and law-enforcement philanthropist, Anthony Bergamo.

Mr. Bergamo, now 58, is vice chairman of Milstein Properties and founder of the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation. After the September 11 attacks, it was he who made available vacant apartments in the Milstein controlled Liberty View building at 99 Battery Place, Battery Park City, to the police commissioner, Bernard Kerik, as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the American Red Cross, and a construction company involved in recovery at ground zero. According to news reports, which he has not denied, Mr. Kerik used his apartment for romantic trysts.

At the time of the accident, on September 15, 2000, Mr. Bergamo ran the Milford Plaza Hotel for the Milstein organization and lived in a 28-story co-operative apartment complex attached to the underground parking garage at 155 E. 68th St., across the street from Hunter College.

Records from the police Accident Investigation Squad, which reviewed a surveillance video from the garage, and from the city’s medical examiner give the following account.

At 5:12 a.m., Mr. Bergamo drove his black 2000 Ford Expedition onto the entrance ramp and descended toward the parking area. With little more than 3,000 miles on the odometer, the vehicle had scarcely been used. The weather that Friday was rainy, and the woman, who was thought to be between 50 and 60, was sleeping on the dry, protected ramp.

She was lying, with her feet near the entrance and her head facing the bottom of the ramp, less than 30 feet into the garage, near the middle of the gradually descending ramp at a point where it begins to curve toward the right. After reviewing the videotape, investigators determined that the woman had been lying there for “a period of time” before she was run over.

From behind the wheel of his large vehicle, Mr. Bergamo did not see the woman. Her death was classified as accidental, and police records identify the cause of the accident as “view obstruction” due to the grade of the ramp.

Mr. Bergamo felt the front and rear tires drive over the woman’s chest, so he went back up the ramp and found her body. He then called 911.

Police officers responded and the woman was found to be dead at the scene. The medical examiner determined the cause of death to be “crushing injury to chest.”

Mr. Bergamo had a clean driving record, he took a Breathalyzer test that showed there was no alcohol in his system, and investigators found no indication of his having used drugs. About one-fourth of fatal automobile accidents in New York City result in criminal charges, according to police. Mr. Bergamo was not charged, and the woman’s body was taken to the morgue at Bellevue hospital. She was probably buried in Potter’s Field at Hart Island, the final resting place for between 1,500 and 2,000 unclaimed bodies a year. About 20% of them are never identified.

The garage is whitewashed and bright, and an employee who has worked there since before the time of the accident said this week that it has always been well-lit. The employee said police investigators took the surveillance tape of the accident and never gave it back.

Less than a month before the accident, Mr. Bergamo’s work with the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation led Mr. Kerik’s predecessor, Howard Safir, to award him a badge as an honorary police commissioner. That was on August 17, 2000, the day before Mr. Safir left the job, two days before Mr. Kerik took over, and less than a month before the SUV Mr. Bergamo was driving ran over the woman.

The honorary shields are often bestowed on people who have donated money to charitable causes related to the department. Mr. Bergamo is founder of the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation, an organization that provides economic assistance to families of slain and injured officers.

“It’s a time-honored, traditional method to reward people or curry influence with people who are in a position to help the police department, or who have done significant works, or have been generous in support of the organizations that help the police department,” a longtime former police official, who declined to be quoted by name, said. “There are no hard-and-fast parameters for issuing an honorary police commissioner badge. There are no guidelines. It’s up to the discretion of the police commissioner.”

The shields have no actual value and do not provide the wearer with any special benefits, but the recipients typically have connections at the highest level.

“The fact that you’re getting the shield from the police commissioner shows that you know the police commissioner, and that’s of far greater value than the piece of metal you’re getting,” the former police official said.

According to the New York Times, Mr. Kerik gave an honorary police commissioner shield to the publisher Judith Regan on December 31, 2001, which was Mr. Kerik’s last day as commissioner. According to an article this month in the Times, Ms. Regan and Mr. Kerik had assignations in the Battery Park City apartment.

The New York Sun contacted a representative for Mr. Bergamo, who did not provide a comment.