Days before motorist Dorothy Bruns drove her car through a red light at a Park Slope intersection and fatally struck two young children last month, medics responded to an emergency call about a cardiac condition at her Staten Island home, FDNY sources told the New York Daily News.
The call came on March 2, just three days before the accident that killed a 1-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl and injured their mothers, one of whom was pregnant, and another pedestrian. Responders were also called to Bruns’ home for the same condition on Dec 22 and Nov. 19, the Daily News reported.
Bruns had also been on medical leave from her job in January and February, a source told the paper. The 44-year-old has multiple sclerosis and suffered a seizure behind the wheel on March 5, which caused her to accelerate through a red light at the intersection of Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, striking a 46-year-old man and Ruthie Ann Blumenstein and Lauren Lew, who were walking with their children, Abigail Blumenstein, 4, and Joshua Lew, 1.
Blumenstein, a pregnant Tony-winner Broadway actress whose stage name is Ruthie Ann Miles, was seriously injured, but her unborn child was unharmed.
Bruns attempted to flee after the crash and dragged Joshua Lew’s stroller down Ninth Street before she crashed into several vehicles and was detained by bystanders.
Her white Volvo had been cited four times each in the past two years for running red lights and speeding through school zones. Her license was suspended the day after the Park Slope incident. According to the Daily News, Bruns also struck a pedestrian in Long Island City in September, but the crash was not properly documented.
Bruns’ medical issues are at the center of the criminal investigation into the fatal crash, and authorities are in the process of determining if her doctors had instructed her to stop driving.
