The pregnant Broadway star who was seriously injured when a driver ran a red light in Park Slope Monday and fatally struck her toddler daughter and a 1-year-old boy is out of intensive care, her family said in a statement.
Ruthie Ann Blumenstein, who goes by the stage name Ruthie Ann Miles, is “now out of ICU and healing, by all accounts it is a miracle our second child is unharmed,” the statement posted to her account said Thursday.
— Ruthie Ann Miles (@RuthieAnnMiles) March 8, 2018
Blumenstein and her friend Lauren Lew were walking with their children, Abigail Blumenstein, 4, and 1-year-old Joshua Lew, Monday afternoon when Dorothy Bruns ran a red light at the intersection of Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue in Park Slope.
Bruns attempted to flee after striking the group and a nearby 46-year-old man, dragging Joshua Lew’s stroller down the block, but was detained by witnesses after crashing into several cars along Ninth Street.
Bruns, whose license plate had been cited 12 times in the past two years for traffic violations that include four instances of running red lights and four for speeding in school zones, told first responders she had a medical condition and suffered a seizure, which caused her to accelerate through the red light.
A police source said after the crash that Bruns had suffered two recent strokes, while a former neighbor said she has multiple sclerosis, which can cause seizures.
Bruns will likely not face any charges in connection to the fatal crash due to her medical conditions, but her license was suspended Tuesday, and authorities said her license had a clean record, The Wall Street Journal reported.
However, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that he wished “she was under arrest right now. It’s just terrible what happened to these children, and it should never happen again.”
The mayor, whose private residence is near the crash site, also said he hopes the tragic incident inspires a change in state laws, especially those that would allow authorities to seize repeat violators of traffic laws.
“I’m not a lawyer, but I want to be provocative on purpose,” he said. “We got to get serious on this.”
A representative for Gov. Andrew Cuomo said they “will of course review any potential legislative remedies” in the wake of the “terrible tragedy,” but according to current law, “violations of local red light and speed camera programs are administered by the City of New York and not reported to the DMV.”
Records show the intersection where the crash occurred has been the site of 10 traffic-related injuries since 2014, and a pedestrian was killed there two years ago.
