Efrayim Yaakov Lebowitz: Boy, 5, dies after being struck by school bus on Christmas in Upstate New York
KIRYAS JOEL, NEW YORKa Efrayim Yaakov Lebowitz, 5, died on Sunday, December 25, 2022, after being struck by a school bus struck in Kiryas Joel, Upstate New York. The first responders were unable to revive the boy despite arriving quickly at the scene.
The Yeshiva World reported that little Lebowitz was struck near Forest Road and Seven Springs Mont Road in the largely Hasidic Jewish community in Orange County. On Sunday evening, a funeral was scheduled. Earlier this year, bizarre school bus accidents with similar circumstances transpired, but fortunately, none of the victims of the tragedy died as a result of their injuries. Numerous individuals were harmed in a July incident when a school bus overturned on the Hutchinson River Parkway in the Bronx. Just before 6 am, the bus was traveling north on the Hutchinson River Parkway when the driver attempted to exit at Exit 1a, Bruckner Boulevard West, causing the vehicle to overturn, according to police. The bus had no children on board, but the NYPD reported that 40 people, including the driver, had minor injuries.
READ MORE
Mayor Eric Adams stated that the bus was transporting bus drivers and attendants for Summer Rising, the city's summer camp and school program for 110,000 students. "The safety of every member of our community is our priority, and thankfully no major injuries were sustained in this morning’s bus accident in the Bronx," David Banks, Schools Chancellor, stated.
Banks added, "The incident involved employees of one of the DOE's contracted busing providers — no students were on the bus."
The bus company, Consolidated Bus Transit Inc, had covered half of the 34 routes affected by the accident and planned to double up on the remaining more than a dozen routes, according to an ABC7 report.
There was another bus accident at the beginning of December, involving a school bus operated by the Jewish Ribnitzer schools which was carrying young boys between the ages of six and eleven. The bus rolled down a hill, struck two parked cars, and collided with a home in a suburb north of Southgate Drive, New York City, inflicting serious injuries, according to the Yeshiva World.
A first responder on the scene told the New York Post that nearly two dozen patients, including the driver and 21 children, were rescued from the wreckage. Six of these patients were transported to the pediatric trauma center at Westchester Medical Center, where two of them were in a serious but not life-threatening condition.