Driver charged with manslaughter in multi-vehicle crash killing mother and 2 daughters in Midwood
MIDWOOD, Brooklyn (WABC) -- A driver has been charged after a multi-vehicle crash in Brooklyn killed a mother and her two young daughters and also critically injured her son.
Miriam Yarimi, 32, has been charged with multiple counts of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and assault in the second degree. She is also charged with reckless driving and aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle, failing to yield right on red and speeding over the limit.
The fatal crash happened just after 1 p.m. on Saturday on Ocean Parkway off Quentin Road in Midwood.
Police say a mother and her three children were crossing the street when Yarimi, who was driving in an Audi, rear-ended a Toyota Camry. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the impact caused the Toyota Camry to be pushed aside, while the Audi continued forward, striking the mother and her kids in the crosswalk.
"I will call it like it is. This was a horrific tragedy caused by someone who shouldn't have been on the road," Tisch said. "A mother and two young children killed. Another child fighting for his life. A family and a neighborhood devastated."
Neighbors say Natasha Saada and her three children were the ones crossing the street. They had no idea the Audi speeding down Ocean Parkway was headed their way. Natasha, 34, and her children, 5-year-old Deborah and 8-year-old Diana were killed. Her four-year-old son is in critical condition.
Witnesses say the crash was so severe that the Audi went airborne as it rolled over.
"We heard the bangs, my father ran outside -- it was hard. He told my mother ''don't come out here, you don't want to see this," said Max, whose home sits at the intersection where the crash happened.
Friends say Natasha left her home on East 2nd Street while her husband and youngest son stayed back. The group was walking to a relatives home on the other side of Ocean Parkway.
Police say Yarimi was driving and kept going,
Yarimi had to be extricated from the crash. She was taken to the hospital, where she remains in stable condition. Officials said she was driving with a suspended license during the time of the collision.
As tradition in the very close-knit Jewish community, less than 24 hours after the deadly accident, mourners gathered for a funeral. They are devastated, paying their respects to a mother and her daughters who never saw the Audi coming, and could not get out of the way. The plans are to fly their bodies to Israel for burial.
Meanwhile, the Camry that the Audi rear-ended was an Uber, A 63-year-old man was driving it, and three children in that vehicle were also injured.
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