On Friday morning in New York City, a 9-year-old boy was fatally struck by a private school bus. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Burial of the child is tentatively scheduled for Sharai Tora Bais Hachaim Cemetery in South Brunswick later Friday afternoon.
The bus was making a left turn from Lee Avenue to Lorimer Street in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. The bus driver, a 49-year-old man, of the bus initially left the scene but returned after realizing he had struck the boy.
The young Jewish boy, Yoel Jacobwitz, was on his way to study at yeshiva on Friday morning when he was hit.
New York City Mayor Zohran says he is “devastated” by the death and the accident. “Children should be safe walking around our city, and this horrific road death is a painful reminder that we must continue to use every tool available to make our streets safe.”
First responders found the boy unconscious and unresponsive with severe injuries to his head.
The crash occurred exactly one week after drivers in the very same area struck and injured three pre-teens, two on foot, and one on a kick scooter in the span of four hours last Friday.
In a neighborhood with large family sizes, many of the injured are children. But neighborhood leaders have long fought efforts by the Department of Transportation to make the roadways safe, even after a 10-year-old girl was killed by an impatient driver.
More recently, these leaders fought the installation of a protected bike lane on Bedford Avenue, which convinced the Adams administration to remove three blocks of it. The roadway has been less safe as a result. DOT also repaved the five-way intersection of Lee Avenue, Lorimer Street, and Wallabout Street, and had not repainted crosswalks and other street markings Hours after Friday’s incident.
The crash marked the second time this year that a school bus driver has been killed in Brooklyn, after an 11-year-old was killed in February.
