Elderly UES Man Hit, Killed By School Bus In Midtown: Police

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — An elderly Upper East Side man was fatally struck by a school bus driver as he crossed a Midtown street on Friday, police said.

Shortly after 11:30 a.m., a 40-year-old man driving a yellow school bus was heading west along East 37th Street when he made a left turn onto Second Avenue — near the congested on-ramp to the Queens Midtown Tunnel.

At the same moment, 82-year-old Fahri Boumechal was crossing Second Avenue on foot, and was hit in the crosswalk by the bus driver.

Police found Boumechal unconscious and unresponsive, with trauma to the head. He was rushed to NYC Health and Hospitals/Bellevue, where he was pronounced dead. Boumechal lived on East 88th Street near Madison Avenue, according to police.

The bus driver remained at the scene and police say no criminality is suspected. One other adult was inside the bus at the time, but no children were inside.

Friday's crash came only a few weeks after Mehri Hekmati, an 86-year-old Upper East Sider, was fatally struck by a scooter driver in East Harlem. Last October, an 81-year-old Queens woman was also hit and killed by a school bus driver on the Upper East Side, at Third Avenue and East 72nd Street.

During the first quarter of 2022, 59 people were killed on New York City's streets: a 44 percent spike compared to last year, and the worst start to any year since the city's Vision Zero safety effort began in 2014, according to a recent report.

The grim numbers prompted Mayor Eric Adams to pledge $904 million this month toward building more bus lanes, bike lanes and pedestrian spaces.