Driver charged with homicide for killing Brooklyn pedestrian whose wife was killed by reckless motorist years ago

A Brooklyn man was arrested Monday for criminally negligent homicide for the reckless driving death of an elderly man whose wife was previously killed under similar circumstances.

Jorge Gonzalez-Cadme, 42, is charged with reckless driving, speeding and unsafe backing of a vehicle in addition to criminally negligent homicide.

Authorities say Gonzalez-Cadme was behind the wheel of the Hyundai Elantra that struck Norman Fruchter, 85, on Dec. 22 in Bay Ridge.

The driver was reversing down 68th St. when he hit Fruchter, who was trying to cross the street near Bliss Terrace, cops said.

Medics rushed Fruchter to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, where he died nearly a week later.

Fruchter was coming from Owl’s Head Park after walking his dog when he was hit, relatives said at the time. The park is just across the street from where he had lived with his wife.

“I’m always happy to get a reckless, dangerous driver off the streets,” said Fruchter’s daughter Chendra Frutcher. “It doesn’t bring my dad back, though. It would be great if he could not be so careless with anyone else’s loved ones.”

Her mother, and Fruchter’s wife, Rachel Fruchter, an epidemiologist and professor at SUNY Downstate, died in July 1997 after a van struck her while she was riding a bicycle through Prospect Park.

Cops at the time said the van driver had cut through the park to avoid traffic on the surrounding streets.

The crash occurred near the busiest entrance to the park, at Parkside and Ocean Aves., and the area where he was driving was supposed to be closed that day. Rachel Fruchter’s death sparked a movement to remove cars from Prospect Park.

Norman Fruchter was a school activist and champion of equal access to education, according to his family.

He was still working and regularly published a blog through New York University’s Metro Center advocating for educational reform.

“It’s a shock,” the victim’s daughter said.

“It’s like a re-traumatization. It’s a terrible way to go. Not that there’s a reason why anyone dies, but it’s just so pointless,” she added. “And this happens to people every day. The cost to families like mine from drivers behind the wheel who are being careless are so great. It’s great that this guy will be held to account. That’s unusual.”