Family of Brooklyn Woman Killed After Barging Off Moving MTA Bus Demands Answers
Felicia Lewis (Obtained by IBex News)
(IBEXNews) – The family of a woman killed under the wheels of an MTA bus in Brooklyn is demanding answers about the tragic incident that left a 3-year-old girl without a mother.
Officials heaped much of the blame on victim Felicia Lewis, saying she barged off the moving bus at about 9:30 a.m. Jan. 16 after the driver passed by her stop along Flatbush Ave. in Flatlands.
Lewis’ family chided officials for blaming her, saying the driver could have stopped the bus and accommodated her wish to step off.
“She told him she was getting off, and he told her he wasn’t opening the door,” said Lewis’ sister, Latisha, recounting what she was told by investigators about the incident.
“So she went to the front of the bus and told him she pressed the button. He was like, ‘I’m not letting you off. You have to get off at the next stop.’ That’s Avenue P. That’s another three, four blocks and it’s freezing out.
“So then he stopped at a stoplight and still didn’t let her off the bus,” the victim’s sister said.
Police said Lewis pushed open the front doors of the bus pictured here before falling from the bus step and hitting a wooden utility pole. Then she tumbled under the bus’ rear wheels, cops said. She died at the scene. (Esha Ray/New York Daily News)
Police said Lewis, 32, pushed open the front doors, fell from the bus step and hit a wooden utility pole. Then she tumbled under the bus’ rear wheels, cops said. She died at the scene.
“It appears it is no fault of the operator of the city bus," NYPD Chief Charles Scholl told reporters on the day of the deadly mishap. "It’s another tragedy of people not being careful and putting themselves in harm’s way.”
Latisha Lewis said that her sister caught the bus that morning after she dropped her daughter off at school around 8:30 a.m. It wasn’t until early evening, when Lewis failed to return home with her little girl, that relatives suspected something was wrong.
They had heard about the bus crash, Latisha said, but they did not make the connection.
“We didn't think it was related,” Latisha said.”I went straight to the police department. I told them I thought my sister was missing. One officer told me that the person they found didn't have ID on them. That didn't sound like my sister.
“Then they asked me if my sister had a lot of keys, because we found a keychain. At that moment, I knew it was my sister, because she did have a lot of keys.”
Her brother made the positive identification, Latisha said.
The scene of the incident is pictured on Jan. 16. (Esha Ray/New York Daily News)
She said the family is struggling how to tell the victim’s 3-year-old girl her mother is dead.
“She senses something is wrong,” Latisha said. ”She’s with her dad right now.”
The family has found the strength to make funeral arrangements, even as they search for answers that still won’t comfort them.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Latisha said. “It’s very hard. It’s even more frustrating feeling like the world is against us. They’re blaming my sister for everything. It’s very hard to mourn like that.”
"Even if she was acting all hysterical and crazy, stop the bus, pull over and call the police,” said Lewis’ stepfather, Duane Douglas, 48.”That’s what he should have done.”
An MTA spokesman, Tim Minton, said the incident is under review.
“NYC Transit’s Office of System Safety has an open investigation into the tragic incident on January 16, 2020 involving Bus #4236 operating on the B41 route in Flatbush," Minton said. "That review is in addition to the NYPD’s independent investigation. While these investigations are pending we cannot comment on the facts and circumstances of what occurred.”
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