Two EMTs from Maimonides Hospital have been suspended after the driver of an ambulance hit and and killed a Brooklyn woman early Thursday and sped off, according to hospital officials and police.
Police said the woman, identified as 44-year-old Cherry Cayetano Sobel, was hit around 6:40 a.m. as the vehicle made a left turn onto Ocean Avenue from Avenue O in Midwood. She was severely injured in the collision, and the driver did not stop, according to NYPD officials. A witness called 911 and Sobel was rushed to Maimonides Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Hospital spokesperson Sam Miller said “the Maimonides family is devastated by this tragic loss,” adding that the EMTs in the ambulance have been suspended pending the outcome of the police investigation.
Police did not make any immediate arrests. Sobel lived about a mile north of where she was hit, officials said.
Ocean Avenue has long been a dangerous place for pedestrians.
In February, a 71-year-old man was left in critical condition after a car hit him and drove away at Ocean Avenue and Avenue S.
In 2023, Ocean Avenue was listed among the Department of Transportation’s priority corridors for Vision Zero safety improvements after four pedestrians were killed and 24 were injured in crashes along the thoroughfare from 2017-2021.
