{"id":284497,"date":"2026-07-02T03:13:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T03:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/284497\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T03:13:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T03:13:50","slug":"ambulance-driver-arrested-for-fatal-brooklyn-crash-that-killed-mom-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/284497\/","title":{"rendered":"Ambulance driver arrested for fatal Brooklyn crash that killed mom of 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An ambulance driver was arrested Wednesday for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/2026\/04\/04\/mom-fatally-struck-ambulance-brooklyn-registered-nurse\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a fatal crash that killed a Brooklyn mother of two<\/a>, cops said.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Gontar, 42, turned himself in at the 61st Precinct station house and was charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to exercise due care for the April 2 crash that killed Cherry Cayetano Sobel, according to law enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>If convicted of <a href=\"https:\/\/codelibrary.amlegal.com\/codes\/newyorkcity\/latest\/NYCadmin\/0-0-0-31295\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the top charge<\/a>, a misdemeanor, Gontar faces the penalty of a $250 fine, 30 days in jail, or both.<\/p>\n<p>Gontar was behind the wheel of a private ambulance when he struck Sobel, 44, as she crossed Ocean Ave. at Avenue O in Midwood around 6:38 a.m, cops said.<\/p>\n<p>Medics rushed Sobel, who had suffered severe trauma, to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/maimo.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Maimonides Medical Center<\/a>, where she died.<\/p>\n<p>The ambulance continued driving after hitting the victim.<\/p>\n<p>Gontar was driving an ambulance operated by Maimonides Medical Center, which suspended the driver and another emergency responder following the crash.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesman for Maimonides said Gontar remains suspended without pay pending an investigation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/michael-gontar-835123b7\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The suspect\u2019s LinkedIn<\/a> states that he\u2019s worked as an EMT since 2005.<\/p>\n<p>Sobel lived in Midwood and worked as a registered nurse in addition to raising two kids, according to a friend.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was a wonderful lady,\u201d said a friend of Sobel\u2019s, who asked to remain anonymous out of respect for the victim\u2019s family. \u201cShe was a registered nurse with two beautiful kids. She helped rehabilitate people who had serious injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sobel\u2019s friend said he last saw the victim when he went jogging with her the day before the\u00a0fatal collision.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was talking about traveling abroad if the war (in Iran) continues,\u201d he said. \u201cShe wanted to help with the injured refugees.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An ambulance driver was arrested Wednesday for a fatal crash that killed a Brooklyn mother of two, cops&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[109106,98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-284497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-ambulance-death","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284497","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=284497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}