Two years after a driver fatally struck her 4-year-old daughter and caused her to miscarry in a deadly Park Slope car crash, award-winning actress Ruthie Ann Miles announced that she is pregnant.
“We are expecting another child this Spring,” said Miles in a March 21 Twitter post. “Thank you especially to the many of you who supported us in the aftermath of the crash, continually lifted us up in prayer, doused us with love, encouraged us, let us be and grieve these two years, and now rejoice with us in this new life.”
Miles was in the crosswalk at Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue with her daughter Abigail in March 2018, when 44-year-old Dorothy Bruns ran a red light and struck them — along with a second mother, and her 1-year-old son.
Both children died at the scene, and both parents were hospitalized for their injuries. Miles, who had been 39 weeks pregnant, later lost her unborn child as a result of the crash — causing her pain that, she said, was “nearly impossible to fathom.”
Bruns, who was warned against driving because she suffered from multiple sclerosis and was prone to seizures, had experienced a “medical episode” just before the crash that caused her to lose control of the vehicle, investigators said.
Eight months after the crash, Bruns died by suicide in her Staten Island home.
Prior to her death, prosecutors charged Bruns — who’s car had been ticketed for speeding in school zones on multiple occasions — with reckless manslaughter.
The incident sparked an outcry from locals across the borough, who demanded that people prone to losing consciousness should be barred from driving.
In December 2019, those demands were met when Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill sponsored by Park Slope’s Assemblyman Robert Carroll that allowed the state to suspend the licenses of drivers deemed “medically unfit” until they received medical clearance from a doctor before.
In her recent pregnancy announcement, Miles — who won a Tony award in 2015 for her starring role in “The King and I” on Broadway — paid tribute to Abigail and her unborn daughter, who she had planned to name Sophia.
“We know Abigail Joy and Sophia would have loved being big sisters and are loving watching their family grown,” she said.
