A Williamsburg man and his pregnant wife were killed in a hit-and-run crash on the way to a hospital yesterday, but their unborn son was delivered by C-section and miraculously survived.
The firstborn child of Nachman and Raizel Glauber — delivered prematurely as his 7-months-pregnant mom died — was in serious but stable condition at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan last night.
But relatives were barely able to celebrate his birth as they held a funeral and buried the newborn’s 21-year-old parents.
“It’s not just the day the baby’s going to celebrate his first birthday, it’s the day his parents died,” said Nachman Glauber’s cousin Sarah Gluck as she and other relatives joined thousands of mourners at Khal Yitav Lev synagogue in Williamsburg.
The baby, she said, will be named for his father.
“They were always glowing,” Gluck said of the Hasidic couple, who married in January 2012. “They were just starting out with their life, building a family. They were very excited. That’s what makes it so tragic.”
Nachman and his wife — who had been having pregnancy pain — were en route to meet her doctor at Long Island College Hospital in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, at around 12:30a.m. when their Toyota Camry livery cab was broadsided by a speeding gray 2010 BMW at Wilson Street and Kent Avenue, relatives and cops said.
Raizel, known as “Raizy,” was ejected from the car in the T-bone crash, which sent the cab spinning into the median.
Nachman was pinned in the cab. He and the driver, Pedro Nunez Delacruz, had to be cut from the wreckage.
Last night, a woman who had co-signed the vehicle’s lease was charged with insurance fraud. Takia Walker, 29, of The Bronx, had allegedly acquired the car under false pretense, and let a third party who was not on the insurance drive it, sources said.
Yesterday afternoon, mourners lined Rodney Street to say farewell to the victims. Every stoop on the brownstone-lined street was packed, men on one side, women on the other.
Grand Satmar Rebbe Zalman Leib Teitelbaum sobbed as he addressed the mourners.
“What could we say? What is there to say about this? The tragedy speaks for itself,’’ he said.
“God is punishing me for my sins by taking away my daughter,” Raizy’s father, Yitzchak Silberstein, said in Yiddish at the funeral. “Nobody knows how this could happen.”
Silberstein also praised his late son-in-law, talking about how the young couple ate dinner with her parents every night.
“Every day, they spent time together,” he said, noting how “unbelievably good he cared for her and she cared for him.
“I don’t know what to say. My mind is not here. No one understands how this happened. I’m in shock.”
Raizy’s brother Nuchem Yoel Silberstein said, “We can all learn from [Nachman] how to treat a wife. She was the crown of the family.”
Nachman came from a large family that runs a popular Hasidic clothing company.
His wife, Yesenia Perdomo, told The Post, “He doesn’t remember what happened. He passed out,”
NY POST
“They were always glowing,” Gluck said of the Hasidic couple, who married in January 2012. “They were just starting out with their life, building a family. They were very excited. That’s what makes it so tragic.”
Nachman and his wife — who had been having pregnancy pain — were en route to meet her doctor at Long Island College Hospital in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, at around 12:30a.m. when their Toyota Camry livery cab was broadsided by a speeding gray 2010 BMW at Wilson Street and Kent Avenue, relatives and cops said.
Raizel, known as “Raizy,” was ejected from the car in the T-bone crash, which sent the cab spinning into the median.
She was thrown so far that EMTs initially didn’t know where she was. She was found under a parked tractor-trailer.
Nachman was pinned in the cab. He and the driver, Pedro Nunez Delacruz, had to be cut from the wreckage.
The BMW driver, who didn’t own the car, fled on foot and was still at large early this morning.
Last night, a woman who had co-signed the vehicle’s lease was charged with insurance fraud. Takia Walker, 29, of The Bronx, had allegedly acquired the car under false pretense, and let a third party who was not on the insurance drive it, sources said.
Police have the driver’s name, and were showing his photo to possible witnesses, sources said.
Yesterday afternoon, mourners lined Rodney Street to say farewell to the victims. Every stoop on the brownstone-lined street was packed, men on one side, women on the other.
Grand Satmar Rebbe Zalman Leib Teitelbaum sobbed as he addressed the mourners.
“What could we say? What is there to say about this? The tragedy speaks for itself,’’ he said.
Women shrieked. Men buried their faces in their hands.
“God is punishing me for my sins by taking away my daughter,” Raizy’s father, Yitzchak Silberstein, said in Yiddish at the funeral. “Nobody knows how this could happen.”
Silberstein also praised his late son-in-law, talking about how the young couple ate dinner with her parents every night.
“Every day, they spent time together,” he said, noting how “unbelievably good he cared for her and she cared for him.
“I don’t know what to say. My mind is not here. No one understands how this happened. I’m in shock.”
Moshe Meisels, a yeshiva friend of Nachman, told The Post a heartwarming story about how the young husband had recently collected money to help an orphaned friend pay for an upcoming wedding. “He was thinking about how he would feel if he didn’t have a father or a mother,” a shaken Meisels said.
It was unclear whether the cabdriver, Delacruz, who works for Go Car in Williamsburg, had come to a full halt at a stop sign before the crash. The BMW did not have a stop sign.
Nachman — a bright, promising rabbinical student whose own mother had just delivered a boy two weeks ago — died at Beth Israel Medical Center. Raizy died at Bellevue as her son was born.
Nachman’s parents were not at the Brooklyn funeral. They were expected to attend a service in Monsey, Rockland County, where they live, last night before the couple was buried in nearby Kiryas Joel.
Nachman came from a large family that runs a popular Hasidic clothing company.
“Everybody wants the baby,’’ said Gluck, the cousin. “The baby’s going to get a lot of love from everyone.”
Meanwhile, Delacruz, himself a father of three with a fourth on the way, was being treated for a bruised chest.
“I feel very sorry for that beautiful family,” he told WABC-TV.
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