Fair Lawn, NJ – 100’s of mourners attended the funeral service yesterday for the 10-year-old sixth-grader Fair Lawn girl who died when a stolen car crashed into [reported first by VIN News] her family’s sedan and was ripped in half.
Miriam Avraham, 10, was a “typical” girl “who loved music and she had a great sense of humor,” her mother, Helene Avraham, said Friday.
Her brother, Shachar, 14, called Miriam his best friend.
“She was great, she was fun and we’ll miss her so much,” he told the Bergen Record.
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Many classmates and friends of Miriam could be seen crying, clinging to their parents and friends.
Rabbi Yuden of Fair Lawn officiated at the Levaya.
Volunteers from Chesed Shel Emes were working with the medical examiner on kovod hames to have the body released with out invasive autposy
Volunteers from Hatzolah of North Jersey were on standby with an ambulance and provided medical assistance to the mourners standing in the hot sun. One woman collapsed and needed to be transported by Hatzolah to Hackensack Hospital.
Authorities said the girl was sitting in the back of her mother’s Honda Accord on Thursday night, on her way to a festive Sukkot party, when they were struck by the speeding Mercedes.
The ferocious collision sliced the car in half and sent the back half of the Honda hurtling 20 feet to the curb.
Family friend Eric Brauner, 14, who was sitting next to Miriam, was in critical condition with internal injuries at Hackensack University Medical Center.
Helene Avraham, who was driving, and Shachar were also injured, though not seriously.
Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said the driver of the stolen vehicle, Harold Saenz, 22, of Bergenfield, N.J., was injured and held under police guard at the Hackensack hospital.
Saenz was later ordered held on $1 million bail and charged with felony murder, aggravated manslaughter, aggravated assault, burglary and car theft. He’ll have a hearing Monday.