A Greenpoint woman who was hit by a truck driver while crossing the street on Feb. 21 has died of her injuries.
Police said 49-year-old Danielle Aber died at NYC Health+Hospitals/Elmhurst on Saturday, Feb. 24, days after she was critically injured by 68-year-old Stanley Manel, who hit her in the crosswalk at the corner of Nassau Avenue and Sutton Street as he turned left from Nassau Avenue. Aber lived just one block from the intersection where she was hit.
Manel was arrested on the scene and charged with failure to yield and failure to exercise due care. As of Feb. 27, Aber’s death had not affected Manel’s charges.
Aber’s death was the first traffic fatality in Northern Brooklyn in 2024, according to streets safety group Make McGuinness Safe, but she was the third person to be killed by a vehicle in the neighborhood in the last 12 months.
Last June, 73-year-old Teddy Orzechowski was killed while riding his e-bike at the intersection of Driggs Avenue and Monitor Street. In December, 20-year-old delivery worker Oscar de la Rosa was killed by a truck driver at the corner of Kingsland and Greenpoint avenues.
“We are saddened to hear Danielle Aber, who was struck last week by a driver in Greenpoint, has passed away,” said state Sen. Kristen Gonzalez on X. “While we mourn with her family, loved ones, and neighbors, our grief is compounded by the knowledge that we can prevent tragedies like this. Every day we don’t implement common sense changes, we put more lives at risk.”
Last week, Gonzalez — along with her colleagues in the City Council and state Assembly — called on the state to pass traffic laws that would crack down on drivers with multiple school zone speed camera violations – as Manel did. The pols also urged the city to install pedestrian safety measures on Nassau Avenue.
Assembly Member Emily Gallagher posted photos of the intersection where Aber was hit on social media after her death.
“Nothing to slow traffic on Nassau: no signal, stop sign, even a painted crosswalk,” she said. “Where there is a crosswalk on Sutton, a car is parked half in it. The driver who struck Danielle had dozens of speeding tickets. Multiple policy failures here.”
Days after Aber’s death, northern Brooklyn saw more traffic violence after two people were killed in separate fatal accidents in nearby Williamsburg. On Feb. 26, a 33-year-old man was killed when the vehicle he was riding in ran a red light and collided with a bus at the corner of Lorimer Street and Harrison Avenue. The next morning, a cyclist was hit and killed just a block away.
