Two Traffic Fatalities in Southern Brooklyn

At 71st Street and 12th Avenue, where a bus crashed last week after the driver suffered a fatal medical episode (Screenshot via Google Maps)

At the end of last week, two separate traffic fatalities claimed lives in Southern Brooklyn neighborhoods.

On the morning of Thursday, October 18, a school bus driver crashed after suffering a medical episode while driving children to school in Dyker Heights, police said.

Kam Po Lau, 63, was driving a 2006 Ford school bus east on 71st Street when he veered to the left, striking an unoccupied parked car near 12th Avenue, said police. Some of the children on the bus reportedly suffered minor injuries in the crash.

When police arrived at the scene, officers found Lau unconscious and unresponsive. EMS transported the bus driver to Maimonides Medical Center, where he was pronounced deceased, said police.


At 73rd Street and 19th Avenue, where a man was hit by a truck while riding a scooter on Friday (Screenshot via Google Maps)

The next day, on Friday, October 19, a 65-year old man was hit by a truck and killed in Bensonhurst.

Jinsheng Wu was driving his electric scooter across 19th Avenue in the crosswalk at 73rd Street around 10:45 am when the crash took place, police said. A box truck that had been stopped at the light on 73rd was turning right onto 19th with the green when it struck Wu and knocked him to the ground.

Police arrived at the scene and found Wu unconscious, with severe trauma to the head and body. He was also transported to Maimonides Medical Center, where he was pronounced deceased.

The NYPD’s Collision Investigation Squad has opened investigations into both crashes, but no arrests have been made at this time, police said.