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After family killed by driver, locals call for changes to Brooklyn's Ocean Parkway
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Mar 31, 2025
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Ramsey Khalifeh
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Mar 31, 2025
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After a mother and her two young children were killed by a driver while crossing Brooklyn’s notoriously busy Ocean Parkway on Saturday, locals said they were outraged — but not surprised — by the tragedy.
“They happen so frequently that it’s not shocking anymore,” said Mike Davis, 70, who’s lived on Ocean Parkway for 45 years. “I’m really afraid when we walk our little grandson and the dog. It’s terrifying because people are out of control.”
The roadway, which runs 5.5 miles between Prospect Park and Coney Island, is known to neighbors as a hotspot for drag racing and reckless driving. The street also attracts pedestrians and cyclists due to its pair of tree-lined medians sandwiched between six lanes of traffic and a pair of service roads.
Neighbors said the conflict between pedestrians and motorists on Ocean Parkway reached a fever pitch on Saturday, the city’s warmest day of the year so far. Around 1 p.m., as members of Midwood’s Orthodox Jewish community were walking home from synagogue, police said Miriam Yarimi, 32, was driving an Audi on a suspended license when she sped through a red light at Ocean Parkway and Quentin Road. She made an illegal right turn, crashed into another car and careened into the family in the crosswalk, according to police.
The incident killed 34-year-old Natasha Saada, along with her daughters Diana, 8, and Deborah, 5, who police said were crossing Ocean Parkway. Saada’s 4-year-old son was also hospitalized in critical condition. The collision also injured five passengers in the second vehicle.
City data shows 15 people have been killed in car crashes on Ocean Parkway since 2017, a figure that includes the three deaths over the weekend. In 2023, a teenager driving a Tesla slammed into and killed a 76-year-old man sitting on a park bench on the parkway. A cyclist in 2020 was also killed by a driver when he attempted to cross the parkway.
A "ghost bike" on Ocean Parkway at Avenue P marks the site where a cyclist was killed in 2019.
Ramsey Khalifeh
Despite the patterns of death over the last decade, locals said city officials have failed to implement any major changes to the parkway’s infrastructure to make it safer for pedestrians and motorists alike. Officials have struggled to maintain segments of the parkway’s bike lanes, which have been in disrepair for more than a decade.
A spokesperson for the city Department of Transportation said that Ocean Parkway is a state road and any design changes would need to be implemented in partnership with state transportation officials.
Richard Vavara, who lives across the street from the Saada family, said the street desperately needs a redesign.
“ There's too many things going on at that intersection. You got lights, you got turning signals, you got walk signs. It's confusing,” he said. “But the main thing is people have to learn how to slow down.”
Amy Cohen, founder of the street safety advocacy group Families for Safe Streets, said narrowing Ocean Parkway would help make it safer.
“There are so many design improvements that could be made on Ocean Parkway and many of the roads in South Brooklyn,” she said. “South Brooklyn is one of the most dangerous parts of New York City because the roads are wide and it's really hard to cross the street.”
Cohen on Monday also called for lawmakers in Albany to pass legislation that would require car owners to install speed governors in their vehicles if they receive either 11 points on their driver’s license over a two-year period, or receive six or more red light or speed camera tickets in a year. She pointed to public data showing the car Yarimi was driving in Saturday’s crash had been hit with 21 speed tickets since 2023.
Tagged
new york city
public safety
transportation
brooklyn
Ramsey Khalifeh
Ramsey Khalifeh is a transportation reporter on the NYC Accountability desk covering the largest transit system in the country. He was previously a general assignment reporter at Gothamist and worked on the Boston Globe's metro and copy desk. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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