What to Know
- Two drivers were captured on surveillance video veering onto sidewalks in school zones to bypass school buses in Brooklyn within a week
- One of the drivers, Samuel Itzkowitz, 23, turned himself into police Wednesday morning, the NYPD said
- In one of the incidents, small children could be seen getting off the school bus before being confronted by the car on the sidewalk
A driver who allegedly veered onto the sidewalk to bypass stopped school buses in Brooklyn has turned himself into police, the NYPD says.
Surveillance video captured two different drivers veering onto sidewalks in school zones to get around buses stopped in school zones in the borough within the course of a week.
One of the drivers, Samuel Itzkowitz, 23, of Brooklyn, turned himself into police with an attorney Wednesday morning, police said.
He faces charges including reckless driving, failure to yield for a school bus, driving on/around a sidewalk and reckless endangerment, the NYPD said. It wasn’t immediately clear which incident he was involved in.
“Driving on the sidewalk to avoid a stopped school bus is every kind of wrong,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea tweeted Wednesday morning. “Thankfully, no one was hurt and the driver has been found and arrested for reckless endangerment and other charges.”
One of the videos shows a pickup truck pull out from behind a school bus on Harrison Avenue in Williamsburg and drive onto the sidewalk, forcing two students to jump out of the way.
Local
Former state assemblyman and Brooklyn community leader Dov Hikind called the incident “insane" prior to Wednesday's arrest.
“Only imagine if, God forbid, one of those kids had been hit,” he said.
In the second incident, a car passed by a boy who was getting off a school bus in Borough Park and drove onto the sidewalk after the child ran out of the way.
Police hadn’t arrested anyone besides Itzkowitz as of Wednesday afternoon.
Itzkowitz' attorney information wasn’t immediately available.
