Accountability... Where were his parents/guardians?

By JENNIFER 8. LEE and ANN FARMER
Published: May 23, 2006

An 8-year-old Brooklyn girl was killed yesterday afternoon after she was pinned on the sidewalk underneath a runaway school bus in Crown Heights, the police said.

The bus had been left empty and legally parked by the driver while he went to lunch, the police said. An 8-year-old neighborhood boy, who witnesses said had entered the empty bus with a companion before it started moving, was taken in for questioning, the police said.

The victim, Amber Sadiq, was crossing Nostrand Avenue near Crown Street with her 10-year-old brother at 3:16 p.m., the police said.

The school bus had been parked north of that intersection but started moving down a slight incline.

The bus gathered speed as it moved across the intersection, and it hit Amber about 100 feet from where it had been parked, the police said. The brother was not injured.

"She tried to run but the garbage can was in the way," said Kassandra Polanco, 12, a witness.

The bus swerved onto the sidewalk, pinning Amber underneath.

A group of 20 to 25 neighbors tried to lift the bus off her, witnesses said.

"Someone in the crowd was yelling, 'One, two, three,' and it wouldn't move, it was heavy," said Sulanch Lewis, a witness. A nearby Con Edison truck with a crane on it was used to lift the bus.

"But she looked dead and we were just crying," Ms. Lewis said.

Amber was taken to Kings County Hospital Center, where she was pronounced dead at 3:40 p.m., the police said.

The driver, Jean Lima, had parked the bus and taken a brown-bag lunch down the block to JRN Realty to eat with a friend, Richard Joseph. The police said they were not sure whether the front door of the bus had been locked; the back door, an emergency exit, cannot be locked. The operator of the bus is Jofaz Transportation of Red Hook.

Witnesses said they had seen two neighborhood boys enter the bus. One of them, Safari James, 8, was taken in by the police for questioning, said Rosslyn James, 79, his grandmother.

Amber was in the second grade at Public School 161, her family said. She lived on Crown Street with her extended family, including her brother, Umar, and an older sister.

"She was just a happy kid all the time," said Lucy Caba, 29, her aunt. At the family apartment last evening, Umar was crying and trembling.

"I saw it happen and someone carried me home," he said, with tears on his face.

Neighbors described Amber and Umar as close. They would cross Nostrand Avenue twice a day, walking together the two blocks to and from school. They would sometimes play jump rope and basketball together outside.

Amber was a tidy, well-behaved girl, neighbors said. She would do her homework after school and be in bed by the time her mother, Reina, arrived home from work.

Her hair was always combed, said Christen Delacruz, 14, who lives in the building. Her clothes were always ironed and she was always on time for school, he said.

By evening, a makeshift memorial had been set up at the intersection where the accident occurred, which had votive candles, furry teddy bears and a shiny pink pillow that said, "I love you."

One neighbor, Sheena Rose, left a card with a poem that read: "You could make anyone laugh if they were having a bad day. No matter how sad I was, you could take the hurt away."

Al Baker contributed reporting for this article.

When I was younger growing up here in New York was an experience. Taking buses and trains with kids my age, but always chapparoned by an older cousin, aunt, tantie (that lady that's so close to your mom and family she might as well be your blood relative), grandma. Someone always knew where I was. When we got in the house we had to call my mother and she systematically spoke to all of us to make sure we were all in the house. parents these days allow their latch key kids to dictate how and when they get home. the lack of supervision here is astounding to me. This is what happens when people who aren't ready to be parents get knocked up! I am so pained by this it's unbelieveable to me that it's real.

God bless her family and everyone who loved her.

Amber Sadiq RIP...