{"id":132158,"date":"2026-02-13T04:57:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T04:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/132158\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T04:57:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T04:57:25","slug":"brooklyn-community-demands-safety-upgrades-after-fatal-school-bus-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/132158\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn community demands safety upgrades after fatal school bus crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

BATH BEACH, Brooklyn (PIX11) \u2014 The Bath Beach community gathered Thursday night for a vigil to remember 11-year-old Amira Aminova, who was hit and killed by a school<\/a> bus a week ago.<\/p>\n

The deadly crash at the intersection of Bath Avenue and 23rd Avenue was caught on surveillance video and shows Aminova sprinting in the crosswalk just before the fatal collision. Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said her death could have been avoided.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis just could\u2019ve been prevented, and the family that\u2019s dealing with unimaginable heartache \u2014 that burden is so much heavier when it\u2019s something that could be prevented,\u201d said Williams.<\/p>\n

The community and local leaders are turning their grief into action by calling for stronger traffic-calming measures. According to the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, 130 children have been killed in vehicle collisions since Vision Zero began in 2014 \u2014 an initiative by the city aimed at ending all traffic deaths.<\/p>\n

Twenty-eight of those children, including Aminova, were walking to or from school, according to the organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cSimple solutions still exist to these deaths, such as daylighting or road diets that are proven to prevent deaths like this one,\u201d said August Hoyt of Transportation Alternatives.<\/p>\n

The community marched to IS 281, the school Aminova attended, in her memory.<\/p>\n

According to police, the 62-year-old school bus driver, Wawa Aurelus, has been charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian or cyclist and failure to exercise due care.<\/p>\n

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Still, the family\u2019s attorney Alexander Karasik, said they\u2019re planning to pursue justice against the driver, who left the scene after the crash, to the fullest extent of the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bus driver, in this case, we believe not only acted negligently, but we believe he acted grossly negligently and recklessly,\u201d Karasik said.<\/p>\n

PIX11 News reached out to the New York City Department of Transportation regarding the community\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n

The department said it is reviewing the location where the crash happened, as well as a request for a study to be done at the intersection, as it is pursuing safety upgrades across the city.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BATH BEACH, Brooklyn (PIX11) \u2014 The Bath Beach community gathered Thursday night for a vigil to remember 11-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[54393,54176,98,100,99,1882,16521,8073,9,24,63,3058,21992],"class_list":{"0":"post-132158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-amira-aminova","9":"tag-bath-beach","10":"tag-brooklyn","11":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","12":"tag-brooklyn-news","13":"tag-community","14":"tag-deadly-crash","15":"tag-jumaane-williams","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-new-york-city","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-school-bus","20":"tag-transportation-alternatives"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}