A Tony Award–winning actress’s unborn child will survive after a driver ran over the pregnant woman last Monday in a harrowing Park Slope collision that claimed the life of her 4-year-old daughter and another 1-year-old boy.
The family of Broadway performer Ruthie Ann Miles on Thursday confirmed she did not lose her unborn baby in the deadly crash via a Twitter post that also thanked local well-wishers for their concern following the incident.
“Ruthie is now out of ICU and healing, by all accounts it is a miracle our second child is unharmed,” the post read. “We are extremely grateful for your kindness and generosity.”
Miles, 34, was crossing Ninth Street at Fifth Avenue with her daughter Abigail Blumenstein when Staten Island resident Dorothy Bruns drove through the crowded crosswalk, striking the pair along with Miles’s friend Lauren Lew, her son Joshua, and another man at 12:40 pm. Both youngsters died before rescuers arrived, according to police, who said emergency responders rushed the adults to nearby Methodist Hospital in critical condition.
Following the fatal collision — for which officials did not immediately charge Bruns, claiming a seizure may have led her to plow into the victims — do-gooders donated more than $400,000 to an online fund-raiser in support of Miles and her kin, far exceeding the $5,000 goal set by the family friend who organized the initiative.
And big-hearted donors showed similar support for the Lew family, contributing more than $210,000 to a separate online fund-raiser set up after the death of their boy.
Many well-wishers left heart-warming words of encouragement with their financial pledges, expressing condolences and hopes for a speedy recovery.
“I’m so sorry for your loss,” said Gail Eve Malatesta, who donated to the fund-raiser for the Miles family. “I wish I could give more, and I wish I could give you something more meaningful than money. My thoughts are with your family.”
In 2015, Miles won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance as Lady Thiang in “The King and I.”
Critics also recognized the Arizona-born, Hawaii-raised actress for her talent in other roles, including her portrayal of the shoe-obsessed wife of a former Filipino dictator, Imelda Marcos, in the 2013 off-Broadway production of “Here Lies Love.”
