Residents To Rally For Safer Streets After Park Slope Crash

PARK SLOPE, NY — Residents, elected officials and activists plan to march along the streets of Park Slope next week to call for safety improvements on city streets after three young people were killed in crashes so far this year.

The NYC Kids March for Safe Streets will be held a week after a driver ran into five pedestrians at a Park Slope intersection, killing Joshua Lew, 1, and Abigail Blumenstein, 4, and injuring their mothers.

"We need better street design," said Dulcie Canton, the Brooklyn organizer for Transportation Alternatives who are helping plan the march. "It's time to stop killing children."

Several local groups partnered with Transportation Alternative to set up the March 12 rally, planned to start at Prospect Park then end where the children were killed, and Borough President Eric Adams also sponsored it.

So far this year, three children around Brooklyn died after they were hit by drivers. In January, 13-year-old Kevin Flores was killed after an unlicensed oil truck driver struck him while Flores rode his bike in Bed-Stuy.

The driver, Philip Monfoletto, was charged with aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle.

On Monday, Dorothy Bruns, 44, was stopped at the red light at Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue when she lost control of her vehicle, drove past the light and struck five pedestrians.

The children were taken to Methodist Hospital where they were pronounced dead, police said. Their mothers — Ruthie Ann Blumenstein and Lauren Lew — were taken to the same hospital for non life-threatening injuries and a 46-year-old man was also hurt.

Bruns, who's license plate had several violations associated with it, was taken to NYU Langone Hospital and has not been charged as of Thursday afternoon.

"This should never have happened, she should never been allowed to be driving a car after what we know of these other violations," de Blasio said at an unrelated press conference on Wednesday. "I wish she was under arrest right now."

A law enforcement source said Bruns likely had a seizure when she lost control of her car and the New York Post reported she had a history of seizures and heart attacks.

"Clearly should not have been behind the wheel," Canton said about Bruns. "The system failed."

Canton said organizers were inspired by "Stop de Kindermoord" marches around the Netherlands in the 70s after a rise in pedestrian deaths in the country.

The protests contributed to Dutch politicians making streets safer for cyclists and cities in the Netherlands are now considered to have some of the best bike infrastructure in the world, the Guardian reported.

Image: Nicholas Rizzi/Patch