School bus driver charged after Brooklyn teen killed crossing with first
The official record says a 15-year-old girl was crossing with the signal at Avenue P and Bedford Avenue when a bus driver failed to yield; police identified her as Antonina Zatulovska and charged school bus driver Aleksandr Patlakh.
What We Know
A 15-year-old girl was killed at Avenue P and Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn on a Monday morning. According to the police report, a bus driver turned right while the girl crossed in the intersection with the signal. The bus’s right front bumper hit her head, causing severe head lacerations. Police recorded failure to yield the right of way. She died at the scene.
A morning crossing at Avenue P
The crash was recorded at 7:55 a.m. on Jan. 17, 2022, at Avenue P and Bedford Avenue. The official record says the 15-year-old pedestrian was at the intersection and crossing with the signal when a bus driver failed to yield while making a right turn.
Police told the New York Post that officers found Antonina Zatulovska unresponsive in the street with head trauma and that first responders pronounced her dead at the scene.
Police identified the driver and the teenager
Police identified the driver as Aleksandr Patlakh, 55, of Coney Island, and said he was driving a school bus. The Post reported that police charged him with failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to use due care.
The victim was 15-year-old Antonina Zatulovska. A separate Post account said James Madison High School is at the intersection, but city public schools were closed that day for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The bus was making a right turn
The official vehicle record describes the driver as traveling south and making a right turn in a 2004 IC bus. The recorded point of impact was the right front bumper.
The Post accounts described the bus as a school bus. A Department of Education spokesman told the Post that no DOE buses were running that day because it was a federal holiday.
Failure to yield was recorded and charged
The official crash record lists failure to yield right of way as the contributing factor for the bus driver. Police also charged Patlakh with failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to use due care, according to the Post.
A deadly intersection on a busy Brooklyn corridor
The collision was recorded at Avenue P and Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn. The Post described the location as the Sheepshead Bay intersection where officers responded minutes before 8 a.m.
CrashCountNYC’s Bedford Avenue corridor profile counted 2,327 crashes, 1,544 injuries, 78 serious injuries and 8 deaths from the start of 2022 through June 1, 2026.