NEW YORK (WCBS) – A packed synagogue left mourners standing in the streets of Brooklyn as they prayed for Natasha Saada, as well as her 5- and 8-year-old daughters, Deborah and Diana.
All three were killed in a crash on Saturday afternoon.
“It’s so unfortunate, beautiful people, kind people, charitable people,” family friend Jojo Robi said.
Robi and neighbors say the family had just left synagogue during Shabbat when a silver Toyota Camry stopped at Ocean Parkway and Quentin Road, allowing them to cross.
According to police, a speeding Audi blew then through the intersection, hitting the other vehicle and plowing into the mother and her three children.
“When you discover that it was done by someone who has 93 violations, $10,000 of unpaid fines, it’s unbelievable,” New York State Rep. Michael Novakhov said.
The driver, 32-year-old Miriam Yarimi, was driving with a suspended license, police say.
She’s facing a slew of charges, including three counts of criminally negligent homicide, speeding and reckless driving.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, the Brooklyn district attorney and other officials paid their respects at the synagogue, and the community marched behind the ambulance transporting the bodies of the victims.
A family friend shared more about the 34-year-old mother and her children.
“She was an unbelievable, well-respected girl, as you can see, and raised her family in a beautiful way,” an unidentified family friend added.
Thousands of mourners are expected to show support to the victim’s husband over the next seven days of grieving, also known as Shiva.
To help prevent further tragedies, Families for Safe Streets is currently fighting for a law in Albany that would install a speed-limiting device in vehicles of repeat offenders.
“Drivers who are super speeders, who are repeatedly speeding like this and putting our families in danger,” Dahlia Goldenberg, with Families for Safe Streets, said.
Saada’s third child was hospitalized after the crash in critical condition.
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