ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ruthie Ann Blumenstein
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The children of two women with Hawaii ties were killed
in a horrific traffic incident in New York that one witness
described as “something you see in a horror movie.”
According to the New York Daily News, Tony Award-winning actress Ruthie Ann Blumenstein, 34, a graduate of Kaimuki High School who
performs as Ruthie Ann
Miles, and Lauren Lew, 33, whose father lives in Hawaii, were walking with their
children at the intersection of Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue in Park Slope when a car driven by a 44-year-old
Staten Island woman
allegedly ran a red light and struck them at 12:40 p.m. Monday.
Witnesses said the car dragged the stroller carrying Lew’s 1-year-old son, Joshua, for a block before it crashed into another car.
Joshua Lew and Blumenstein’s 4-year-old daughter, Abigail, were transported
to NewYork-Presbyterian Methodist Brooklyn Hospital, where they both died. Blumenstein and Lew were also hospitalized, Blumenstein reportedly in critical condition.
The Daily News and
New York Post reported that Blumenstein was pregnant.
Blumenstein won the
2015 Tony Award for best
featured actress in a musical for her performance as Lady Thiang in “The King and I.” She was the second actress
of Asian descent to win a Tony, following Lea Salonga (“Miss Saigon”) in 1991.
Police said the driver,
Dorothy Bruns, attempted
to flee the scene but crashed into several cars and was stopped by witnesses.
The Daily News reported that Lew’s father, Hawaii
resident William Durston,
was flying to New York to be with his daughter.