Driver Who Killed Two Park Slope Children Arrested

PARK SLOPE – The Staten Island woman who drove through a red light, killing two children in Park Slope back in March, has finally been arrested.

Dorothy Bruns was arrested Thursday morning and indicted for manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, and assault charges in the March 5th incident, the Daily News reports. She will be arraigned Thursday afternoon.

At approximately 12:40pm on March 5, Bruns ran a red light at the intersection of 5th Avenue and 9th Street, crashing into pedestrians in the crosswalk and killing one-year-old Joshua Lew and four-year-old Abigail Blumenstein. Bruns also injured the mothers of the two children, Lauren Lew and Broadway actress Ruthie Ann Blumenstein, who was pregnant at the time of the incident.

Bruns has multiple sclerosis and claims she suffered a seizure which caused her to accelerate her car into the two families. Bruns had her license suspended after it was discovered her car had racked up a number of traffic violations in the last two years including four failure-to-stop-at-red-lights and four speeding-in-school-zone violations.

It was also later discovered that she had been involved in another hit-and-run in Long Island City in September of last year. In that incident, Bruns struck a 28-year-old woman crossing the street, running over her foot and injuring her wrist. Improperly filed paperwork prevented that case from being investigated further.

Three days prior to the Park Slope crash, EMS responded to a call at Bruns’ home after receiving a call that she was having heart problems, the Daily News says. The paper also reports that she took a month-long medical leave from work back in January.

Investigators have been trying to determine whether Bruns’ doctors had advised her not to drive and whether she ignored those orders.