A 10-year-old girl died after she was struck by a driver while crossing the street in Williamsburg on Tuesday afternoon.
Police said the driver, 62-year-old Isaac Karczag, allegedly made a left turn against the light from Wallabout Street onto Franklin Avenue at about 2:45 p.m. on April 16, swerving into oncoming traffic as he did so. Karczag, driving a 2022 Buick SUV, then struck 10-year-old Yitty Wertzberger in the crosswalk.
Emergency responders found Wertzberger lying in the road with severe traumatic injuries and rushed her to The Brooklyn Hospital Center, where she was pronounced dead about an hour later.
Karczag remained on the scene and was later arrested and charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian, failure to obey a traffic device, and failure to exercise due care.
The fatal collision took place just four blocks from where Assistant District Attorney Sarah Pitts was killed while cycling in 2020, City Council Member Lincoln Restler noted on X, adding “we need real street safety interventions and we need them now.”
Traffic collisions have claimed the lives of 70 New Yorkers so far this year, up 11% over the same period last year, according to NYPD statistics. Earlier this year, two people were killed in car crashes in Williamsburg in less than 12 hours.
“Devastating and deeply tragic,” said local Assembly Member Emily Gallagher on X. “May her memory be a blessing. And may we finally do everything we can, at all levels of government, to ensure that children can safely walk in their neighborhoods without fear of injury or death from a car crash.”
A version of this story first appeared on Brooklyn Paper’s sister site amNewYork.
