2 Children Dragged, Killed When Car Hits Pedestrians In Park Slope, Brooklyn
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Two young children were killed when a vehicle struck several pedestrians in a Brooklyn crosswalk Monday.
The crash took place at 9th Street and 5th Avenue in Park Slope at around 12:30 pm when 4-year-old Abigail Blumenstein and 1-year-old Josh Lew were walking across the street with their mothers.
Witnesses said the driver of the white Volvo, 44-year-old Dorothy Bruns of Staten Island, was at the intersection and made a move to get around a stopped car. That's when police say she plowed into the group.
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"She was going slow and then hit them," one person said.
"The baby went flying through the air," another woman said.
After the initial impact, witnesses said the vehicle dragged the children down the block.
"It's really, really sad what happened today," Mayor Bill de Blasio said. "This loss of life is tragic and painful for all of us, particularly all of us who are parents."
Multiple witnesses said Bruns kept going and even seemed to speed up.
"The woman stopped for two seconds, really slow, and then floored it trying to get away," one person said.
As some people ran over to try to help the victims, others ran after the car until it hit a parked car. Bruns was evaluated at the scene and put into an ambulance. Authorities said she wasn't drunk and may have suffered a medical episode which precipitated the crash.
Distraught witnesses were trying to come to terms with how fast everything went so horribly wrong.
"This is going to stay with me for a long time," one person said.
Police said Abigail's mother is 30 weeks pregnant. A 46-year-old man was also hurt in the chaos. Investigators said all three adults were taken to Methodist Hospital in stable condition.
The driver has been released from the hospital and as of early Tuesday morning had not been charged or issued a summons. However, police said the investigation is ongoing.
