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Driver Who Fatally Struck 10-Year-Old Reportedly Had Seizure While Driving
By
Ben Yakas
Published Sep 11, 2019
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Family/Citizen
By
Ben Yakas
Published Sep 11, 2019
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On Tuesday, a 10-year-old boy was fatally struck by a driver while he was waiting for a bus on a sidewalk in Brooklyn. Several outlets are reporting that the driver suffered a medical episode—allegedly a seizure—when the crash occurred.
The incident happened around 2:40 p.m. yesterday at Ocean Avenue and Avenue L in Midwood. The victim, who has been identified as Enzo Farachio, was waiting by a bus stop there, just six blocks from his Ocean Avenue home. The 59-year-old driver, who was in a grey Lexus SUV which had been traveling northbound on Ocean Avenue, veered to the right and mounted the sidewalk at Avenue L. The Post has some horrific video of the moment of impact.
"He was trying to be more independent by going on the bus by himself," the boy's mother, Mary Majao, told PIX11. Farachio suffered severe trauma to the neck and back. He was taken to New York Community Hospital, where he was pronounced deceased. He would have turned 11 at the end of September.
After striking the child, police add that the driver then struck the scaffolding in front of 1673 Ocean Avenue (you can see video below of the crashed car). His 9-year-old daughter was also in the car with him, and the two were taken to Kings County Hospital in stable condition.
Sources told PIX11 that the driver's daughter told police it appeared her father had a seizure before the fatal incident. The NYPD could not comment on that, but ABC, CBS and Yeshiva World News are all reporting similar things. The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office said it has been told the crash "was a potential medical situation" and will thoroughly investigate.
"I'm pretty sure it could have been prevented," Majao told PIX11. "I don't know if this person had an illness that he didn't need to drive."
Danny Harris, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives, said in a statement: ***"***This tragedy is testament to the fact that there is virtually no place in the city where residents are safe from the onslaught of cars -- not in the crosswalk, not in the bike lane, not even on the sidewalk. Crashes like these are not accidents, but the preventable and predictable result of a city where cars, not people, are the priority. As a result, children like this 10-year-old boy and hundreds of others pay the price with their lives each and every year. We will never see an end to traffic violence if we don’t make safe street designs the standard across all five boroughs."
According to Streetsblog, Farachio is at least the 150th person killed on the streets of NYC this year; that's a 17 percent increase from 2018, according to the Department of Transportation.
The NYPD added today that no charges have been filed yet, and the investigation is ongoing.
Tagged
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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