A hit-and-run school bus driver fatally struck a 9-year-old boy identified as Yoel Jacobowitz, in the Hasidic section of South Williamsburg the morning of May 1. According to report on Streetsblog NYC, the 49-year-old driver was turning left from southbound Lee Avenue to Lorimer Street when he hit the boy who was crossing the street. The driver initially left the scene, but returned after being “notified about the incident,” police said. Officials are still investigating this fatal pedestrian accident. We offer our deepest condolences to the family of Yoel Jacobowitz for their tragic and heartbreaking loss.
Dangerous Streets for Pedestrians
Streetsblog reports that South Williamsburg is one of the most dangerous places to be a pedestrian citing data that show 78 pedestrians were injured last year in just the small segment of neighborhood bounded roughly by Broadway, Park Avenue and Kent Avenue. The outlet also points out that in a neighborhood with large family sizes, many of the injured victims are children.
Hours after Friday’s incident, Streetsblog observed several bus drivers attempting the same turn from Lee Avenue to Lorimer Street. School buses such as the one involved in this most recent crash have high driver cabs, which require extra vigilance from drivers navigating city streets. This crash marked the second time this year that a school bus driver killed a child in Brooklyn after driver Wawa Aurelus struck and killed 11-year-old Amira Aminova in February.
Liability Issues
In a hit-and-run collision, the driver and vehicle owner are both responsible parties even if the owner was not driving when the accident occurred. If the driver was on the job and/or operating a company vehicle at the time, his or her employer can also be held liable.
Such drivers can be held financially responsible whether or not they are arrested and/or charged. If a hit-and-run driver has injured you, please remember that you can seek compensation through the uninsured motorist clause of your auto insurance policy (even though the driver has not been identified) or through a quasi-state agency if there is no motor vehicle in the victim’s household. You should consult a personal injury lawyer immediately to protect your rights.
Contacting an Experienced Lawyer
If you or a loved one has been injured in a bicycle accident or pedestrian accident, or if you have lost a loved one in an auto accident caused by a negligent (careless) driver, the experienced New York personal injury attorneys at the Law Offices of Kenneth A. Wilhelm can help you better understand your legal rights and options, and also fight hard to recover just compensation for you. It is in the best interest of injured victims and their families in such cases to contact an experienced personal injury lawyer before contacting the people responsible for the injuries, and definitely before contacting or communicating with any insurance company, or their lawyers, investigators, or adjusters.
Pedestrian accident victims and their families should remember that they can seek compensation for injuries or losses in collisions even if the victim was not walking in a marked crosswalk and even if the driver involved in collision was not charged. Our law firm recovered the full one-million-dollar insurance policy for a girl who was not in the crosswalk when a motor vehicle hit her.
For over 54 years, our skilled accident attorneys have established a proven track record of helping injured victims get fair compensation for their losses. Our law firm recently recovered $5,600,000 for a bicyclist who was hit by a van, and $2,550,000 for another victim of a truck accident, and $3,000,000 for a pedestrian who was hit by a car, and $2,000,000 in a hit-and-run accident, and the full $1,000,000 insurance policy for a pedestrian who was hit by a truck, and $4,625,000 for a driver who was in a car and was hit by a van, and $2,500,000 for a man who fell through an improperly secured hole. We also recovered $1,500,000 for a lady who was hurt by a bus, although there was only a 1 million dollar insurance policy and we got $500,000 above that insurance policy.
We also obtained $295,000 out of a $300,000 insurance policy in compensation for the victim of a bicycle dooring accident (where a car door opens into the path of a bicyclist). One of our clients obtained a verdict for $43,940,000 and another of our clients got a verdict for $23,500,000, both in medical malpractice cases. Also, we got a $1,400,000 verdict in a motorcycle accident.
Please contact us TOLL FREE 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-WORK-4-YOU (1-800-967-5496). WE CAN EVEN COME TO YOU. There is no attorneys’ fee unless we recover money for you. We can also help with personal injury, motor vehicle accident, slip-and-fall accident, lead poisoning, paraplegia cases, quadriplegia cases and medical malpractice cases including, brachial plexus palsy (Erb’s palsy) and cerebral palsy cases in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, or Florida. If you have been seriously injured in any of the 50 U.S. states, please call us and we will try to help you with your case.
Other TOLL FREE phone numbers for us are:
1-800-RADIO-LAW, 1-888-WYPADEK, OR 1-800-LAS-LEYES
Please visit us at: www.WORK4YOULAW.com
Source: https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2026/05/01/school-bus-driver-kills-nine-year-old-boy-in-south-williamsburg