Brooklyn, NY – Watch: Jewish Schoolgirls In Williamsburg Nearly Struck As Another Driver Uses Sidewalk To Avoid Traffic

Brooklyn, NY – For the second time in less than a week, Jewish children on their way to school had their lives endangered by a vehicle driving on the sidewalk.

Surveillance footage showed two backpack-clad Chasidic girls jumping out of the way of an oncoming pickup truck as they waited to cross Harrison Avenue at the corner of Wallabout Street in Williamsburg just before 8:30 AM.

The late model, four door, black Chevrolet pickup with flashing yellow dashboard lights was at the northeast corner of Harrison Avenue, and with traffic jamming the intersection, the driver drove around a school bus and mounted the curb, missing the two girls at the southeast corner of Harrison Avenue by approximately three feet.

This morning’s incident follows another that took place on February 20th when the driver of a blue Toyota Avalon drove on the sidewalk on 53rd Street between 18th and 19th avenues in Borough Park to avoid having to wait behind a stopped school bus, just as a second school bus was unloading small children at Talmud Torah Imrei Chaim Viznitz.

Surveillance footage showed the youngsters and a supervising teacher staring in surprise as the car inched slowly towards the building’s entrance while the children crossed in front of the vehicle, with the driver zooming down the sidewalk as the teacher held the rest of the boys back and out of harm’s way.

Sources told VIN News that the driver of the Avalon had had words with the driver of the stopped school bus just before the incident took place. Police said that they have impounded the Avalon but an investigation is still underway and that they have yet to apprehend the driver of the vehicle.

Last week’s incident below:

This morning’s incident comes less than 24 hours after a 26 year old woman was killed in Rego Park after being struck by a taxi driver pulling out of a Queens Boulevard gas station near 63rd Drive, reported ABC News (https://7ny.tv/2Xqr9zh). The hit and run driver attempted to flee the scene. He was chased down by eye witnesses after he turned the wrong way on a one way street and stopped his vehicle.

City Councilman Chaim Deutsch said that he was extremely disturbed to hear about the dangers facing pedestrians and that decisive action should be taken to prevent others from using sidewalks as shortcuts.

“Driving on the sidewalk is dangerous and potentially deadly,” Deutsch told VIN News. “There have been way too many recent incidents of aggressive motorists driving onto a sidewalk and nearly causing tragedies. Drivers caught on the sidewalk should have their licenses suspended, their cars impounded, and be criminally charged.”