Driver fatally injures pedestrian in Greenpoint crosswalk
A driver identified by police as 68-year-old Stanley Manel hit 49-year-old Danielle Aber while turning left at Nassau Avenue and Sutton Street on Feb. 21, 2024, and she died at Elmhurst Hospital three days later after a crash the city linked to failure to yield.
What We Know
On Feb. 21, 2024, a driver in a pickup was making a left turn at Nassau Avenue and Sutton Street in Brooklyn when he hit 49-year-old Danielle Aber, who was crossing in a marked crosswalk. Brooklyn Paper, citing police, identified the driver as 68-year-old Stanley Manel and reported that Aber lived one block from the intersection. EMS took Aber to NYC Health+Hospitals/Elmhurst, where she died on Feb. 24. Police arrested Manel at the scene and charged him with failure to yield and failure to exercise due care; the city crash record also lists failure to yield right of way as a contributing factor. Streetsblog reported that Manel had 26 city speed-camera tickets associated with his Ram pickup since 2018, including nine in the prior year.
The turn at Nassau and Sutton.
The city crash record places the crash at 7:06 p.m. on Feb. 21, 2024, at Nassau Avenue and Sutton Street in Brooklyn. It records one pedestrian killed and one pickup driver involved; the pickup driver was making a left turn, and failure to yield right of way was listed as a contributing factor.
Brooklyn Paper, citing police, reported that 68-year-old Stanley Manel hit 49-year-old Danielle Aber in the crosswalk as he turned left from Nassau Avenue. Greenpointers reported that EMS found Aber with head trauma and took her to Elmhurst Hospital.
Danielle Aber was close to home.
Aber was a Greenpoint woman who lived one block from the intersection where the driver hit her, Brooklyn Paper reported. Greenpointers described her as a Greenpoint local, and Streetsblog identified her as 49-year-old Danielle Aber.
Streetsblog reported that Manel, the driver, was from Queens and remained at the scene after the crash.
Police cited failure to yield.
Police arrested Manel at the scene and charged him with failure to yield and failure to exercise due care, Brooklyn Paper reported. As of Feb. 27, the paper reported, Aber's death had not changed those charges.
Streetsblog reported that Manel had 26 city speed-camera tickets associated with his Ram pickup since 2018, including nine in the year before the crash. The outlet also reported that camera-issued tickets did not put points on his license.
The intersection sits on a crash-heavy Nassau Avenue corridor.
The crash happened at Nassau Avenue and Sutton Street in Greenpoint. CrashCountNYC's street context for Nassau Avenue in Brooklyn counted 186 crashes, 95 injuries, two serious injuries, and one death from Jan. 1, 2022, through June 1, 2026.
Streetsblog reported that Nassau Avenue is a two-way route to and from the Kosciuszko Bridge bike path and has no additional east-west bike infrastructure. Neighborhood street-safety activist Kevin LaCherra told Streetsblog that Nassau is "our Main Street in Eastern Greenpoint" and said drivers use it as a cut-through.
Elected officials called for street-safety changes.
After Aber's death, state Sen. Kristen Gonzalez wrote that the community was mourning and that preventable street deaths demanded action, Brooklyn Paper reported. The paper also reported that Gonzalez and other elected officials urged state lawmakers to pass traffic-safety bills and called for pedestrian safety measures on Nassau Avenue.
Streetsblog reported that Assembly Member Emily Gallagher, state Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, Council Member Lincoln Restler, and U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez called for legislation including intelligent speed assistance for drivers with repeated speeding tickets and authority for New York City to lower speed limits.