Marcus Santos/New York Daily News
Ivan Delacruz, 6, sits in a wheelchair with his parents Esperanza and Ivan Sr., in their home in the Bronx Thursday.
The parents of a first-grader mowed down by a yellow school bus at a Bronx intersection unstaffed by a crossing guard, are taking legal aim at the bus driver and the NYPD.
Ivan Delacruz Jr. will mark his seventh birthday Saturday in a wheelchair, his leg horribly mangled, with months of rehab, plastic surgery and home schooling in his future.
Ivan was walking to the Santa Maria School on Jan. 16, holding his 12-year-old sister Mariah’s hand as they crossed Zerega Ave. in Parkchester when the bus driver made a left turn through the stop sign without stopping, according to the NYPD accident report and court papers.
“He’s super traumatized,” the boy’s father Ivan Delacruz told the Daily News. “And I’m afraid of his sister being even more traumatized because she says she feels bad that she wasn’t strong enough to pull him out from under the bus wheel.”
Marcus Santos/New York Daily News
Ivan Delacruz had his leg mangled by a school bus after trying to cross an unguarded street in the Bronx on his way to school.
The crossing guard assigned to the intersection had called in sick at 7 a.m. and a replacement had not yet arrived when the boy was struck at 7:30 a.m.
“The safety of this young child was wrongly compromised by the failure of officials to replace the school crossing guard who had called in sick,” said the family’s lawyer Sanford Rubenstein.
He will file a lawsuit seeking unspecified damages Friday against Little Richie Bus Service, driver Evelyn Rivera and a notice of claim to sue the NYPD for negligence for $ 8 million.
A police official said the precinct’s commander designates the busiest school crossing guard intersections as “A posts” and those with less traffic volume as “B posts.”
Enid Alvarez/New York Daily News
The intersection at Zerega Avenue in front of the Santa Maria School where Ivan Delacruz was struck by a yellow school bus.
If a crossing guard is absent at an “A post,” the NYPD will attempt to deploy a replacement or even a cop to the intersection as quickly as possible, the official said. The intersection where Ivan was struck is designated as a “B post,” the official said.
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Mayor de Blasio has made pedestrian safety a priority of his new administration after a spate of serious accidents this month, some of them fatal.
Ivan was released from the hospital this week after spending a week in the pediatric intensive care unit. Tissue and muscle were torn from his calf and doctors feared the onset of infection.
Aaron Showalter
Mariah Delacruz tried to help her little brother, who was hit by a bus as they both walked to school.
The father said drivers blow through stop signs at the intersection with impunity, sometimes even when the crossing guard is on the job.
“We are very disappointed there was no one there that morning,” he said. “It’s too busy a street to leave unattended when kids are going to school.”
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Little Ivan, a big Yankees and New York Giants fan, is disappointed that his indoor rock-climbing birthday party has been canceled.
His school chums have made a booklet of get-well cards and sent him balloons and Super Mario plush toys to cheer him up.
“We’re going to try to make it up to him,” the father said. “I am concerned he will have a limp but we’re glad he’s alive.”
Alan Sclar, a lawyer for the school bus company, said the accident remains under investigation and declined to comment on the suit. “We wish him a speedy recovery,” Sclar said.
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