Girl, 10, Is Killed by School Bus in Brooklyn

The bus struck the girl around 6:30 a.m. near the intersection of Crescent Street and Wortman Avenue in the East New York area, police said.

The girl’s parents, who were nearby, arrived at the scene and became “hysterical” after seeing their daughter surrounded by emergency workers, said Treva Tolliver, 16, a local resident, adding that the father began cursing at the driver, who remained on the scene in the school bus.

“They had to hold back the dad because the dad was ready to kill the driver,” Treva said.

The parents accompanied the girl as she was rushed to Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

The bus driver was taken into custody by police, but police officials said no criminal charges were immediately filed. No students had been on the bus.

A spokesman from the city’s Department of Education said the driver would be suspended pending the outcome of an investigation, and drug and alcohol testing.

“This is devastating, and my heart goes out to the family and school community,” the schools chancellor, Richard A. Carranza, said in a statement. “We are providing all support necessary during this difficult time.”

Education officials said Carranza planned to visit the girl’s school on Tuesday to offer support and condolences.

Officials from Quality Transportation, the Brooklyn company that operates the bus, offered condolences in a statement, and said they were “actively working with the police as they continue their investigation.”

More than 20 pedestrians have been killed on New York City streets this year, including four since Sunday.

On Sunday, an 88-year-old woman was killed in Bayside, Queens, and a 26-year-old man was fatally struck in a hit-and-run in Brooklyn. On Monday, a 59-year-old woman died after being struck on a Bronx street.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has made street safety a priority with his Vision Zero plan to eliminate traffic deaths. The plan helped reduce traffic deaths from nearly 300 in 2013 to their lowest level in a century. But traffic deaths rose last year to 221, from 203 deaths in 2018.

In December, a pediatrician was hit by a school bus while he biked near Central Park. Also that month, six pedestrians were killed by vehicles during a 72-hour stretch.

The city’s recent safety initiatives included lowering the speed limit on most streets to 25 mph and adding more speed cameras throughout the city. Some traffic signals have been reconfigured to give pedestrians head starts at crosswalks.

Still, transportation advocates said the 10-year-old’s death was a result of city officials putting vehicles ahead of pedestrians and cyclists.

City leaders continue to support “a transportation system that prioritizes moving traffic instead of protecting human life,” said Danny Harris, executive director of Transportation Alternatives.

“We know what it takes to prevent these deaths, but our leaders have slow-rolled the cure,” he said. “Mayor de Blasio says he wants to save our city, but he will fail if he is unable to protect the most vulnerable among us.”

By late Tuesday morning, the police had towed the bus from the scene, where a plastic oxygen canister lay on a patch of grass next to a section of blood-soaked pavement.

Neighbors called the intersection a dangerous one, where stop signs are often ignored by school buses, city buses and garbage trucks.

“The thing is, around here they never stop,” said Niurka Vasquez, 35, who lives with her two young children next to the intersection.

“Sooner or later, it was going to happen,” she said of the fatal accident.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .