Driver Charged After 10-Year-Old Killed in Williamsburg
A 62-year-old driver identified by police as Isaac Karczag was charged after city records and police accounts say he made a left turn in a Buick SUV and hit 10-year-old Yitty Wertzberger as she crossed with the signal at Wallabout Street and Franklin Avenue.
Location reported in Open Data.
What We Know
Police said 62-year-old Isaac Karczag was driving a Buick SUV on Wallabout Street on April 16 when he turned onto Franklin Avenue and hit 10-year-old Yitty Wertzberger, who was crossing with the walk signal in a marked crosswalk. EMS took Wertzberger to Brooklyn Hospital Center, where she was pronounced dead. Karczag stayed at the scene and was arrested on charges of failure to yield to a pedestrian, failure to obey a traffic device, and failure to exercise due care. City records list failure to yield and driver inattention or distraction for the SUV driver; early news reports differed on some vehicle and intersection details.
A left turn ended with a child fatally injured
City records place the crash at Wallabout Street and Franklin Avenue in Brooklyn at 2:33 p.m. on April 16, 2024. Police accounts in news reports described the response as coming shortly before 2:45 p.m.
Audacy reported that the NYPD Highway District's Collision Investigation Squad determined Isaac Karczag was driving a 2022 Buick Enclave SUV westbound on Wallabout Street, crossed the double yellow lines while turning left onto southbound Franklin Avenue, and hit Yitty Wertzberger as she crossed with the walk signal in a marked crosswalk.
Emergency responders took Wertzberger to Brooklyn Hospital Center, where police said she was pronounced dead.
Yitty Wertzberger was crossing with the signal
The official record lists the person killed as a 10-year-old girl walking at an intersection and says she was crossing with the signal. News reports identified her as Yitty Wertzberger.
Police identified the driver as 62-year-old Isaac Karczag. Reports from Audacy, amNY, and Brooklyn Paper said he remained at the scene before he was taken into custody.
Police and city data pointed to a failure to yield
The city crash record lists failure to yield right of way for the collision and lists failure to yield right of way and driver inattention or distraction for the SUV driver.
Police charged Karczag with failure to yield to a pedestrian, failure to obey a traffic device, and failure to exercise due care, according to Audacy, amNY, and Brooklyn Paper. Brooklyn Paper reported that police alleged he made the turn against the light and swerved into oncoming traffic.
Reports did not all describe the vehicle the same way
The official record identifies the driver's vehicle as a 2022 Buick SUV, and Audacy described it as a 2022 Buick Enclave SUV. Brooklyn Paper also described a 2022 Buick SUV.
Some early coverage differed. NY1 described the Buick as a sedan, while ABC7 reported that the driver was in a black Honda Pilot. Those descriptions conflict with the official vehicle record and later charge-focused accounts.
Wallabout and Franklin in Williamsburg
The official record places the crash at Wallabout Street and Franklin Avenue in Williamsburg, and Audacy, NY1, and Brooklyn Paper used that intersection in their accounts. amNY and ABC7 reported Wallabout Street and Wythe Avenue, a conflict in the early public reports.
City Council Member Lincoln Restler noted that the collision happened four blocks from where Assistant District Attorney Sarah Pitts was killed while cycling in 2020 and wrote, "we need real street safety interventions and we need them now."
Elected officials called the death devastating
Local Assembly Member Emily Gallagher wrote on X, "Devastating and deeply tragic," and added, "May her memory be a blessing. And may we finally do everything we can, at all levels of government, to ensure that children can safely walk in their neighborhoods without fear of injury or death from a car crash."