BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — A mother is suing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for alleged negligence by a B46 bus driver after her son was hit by a car in 2014.
Jervir Maycock, then 8-years-old, suffered serious injuries after a Honda sedan slammed into him as he was crossing the intersection of Utica Avenue and Fulton Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
An MTA bus driver had let the third grader off at an undesignated stop, forcing him to cross the intersection, the lawsuit charges.
Maycock boarded a Kings Plaza-bound B46 bus at the corner of Malcolm X Boulevard and Fulton Street on June 6, 2014, and was separated from his grandmother who had also tried to get on the bus but had the door close on her, according to court documents.
The grandmother pounded on the closed door and the side of the bus but was “completely ignored” by the unidentified driver, the suit says.
The boy repeatedly asked the driver to let him off and told him his grandmother was trying to get on.
Instead of allowing Maycock to leave at the stop, the driver said to wait and drove across the “notoriously busy, confusing and dangerous intersection” during rush hour to beat the red light, according to the lawsuit.
He dropped the child off at the corner of Utica and Fulton, where there is no bus stop.
The 8-year-old was running across the street towards his grandmother when he was struck by a driver heading westbound on Fulton Street.
Maycock “spun around mid-air,” according to a witness report, and suffered a fractured jaw, broken pelvis, and internal injuries. The impact knocked four of his teeth out and he was placed in a medically induced coma for several days.
“He was just a scared little boy who wanted to get back to his grandmother,” Sharon Worrell, Maycock’s mother, said.
“It was very traumatizing not just for him, but for our whole family, all because of the negligence of one man.
“When he crosses the street now, he’s fearful. He’ll latch onto you so hard. We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future for him.”
Maycock will have to visit a doctor once a month until he’s 18 for jaw X-rays, and he can no longer participate in contact sports, his mother added.
The lawsuit alleges that the MTA driver “had a duty to his passengers, particularly a young child…to provide safe ingress and egress from his bus,” and that the accident was a direct result of the negligence of the agency as well as the car's driver.
Akeshia Marcellina Joseph, who was driving the Honda’s wheel, is also included in the suit for traveling at an “unsafe rate of speed.” Her lawyer declined to comment.
Maycock’s family is suing for an undetermined amount.
The MTA declined to comment on pending litigation, but denied the allegations in court documents.
“We’ve been shut down at every turn by the Transit Authority trying to get information from them,” said Carmen Jack Giordano, a lawyer for the family.
“They need to help us instead of hiding underneath a rock and not telling us who the bus driver is.”
The intersection at the accident's site is one of several Brooklyn corridors slated to undergo streetscape changes, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio's Vision Zero program.
New B46 Select Bus Service is also proposed for the corridor.
“We’re looking for compensation for the family but we’re really hoping this lawsuit will get some attention to that intersection so that other kids don’t get injured,” Giordano said.
