Vic ‘a great man’
WWII vet dies when SUV jumps B’klyn curb
A 97-year-old decorated World War II veteran from Ukraine who bravely fought for Russia died after an SUV jumped the curb and slammed him up against a Brooklyn bank’s glass doors, police said Thursday.
Volf Ferdman was sitting on his walker in front of an Apple Bank in Brighton Beach when the 79-year-old driver of a 2008 Cadillac Escalade pulled out of his parking spot at around 3:45 p.m. Wednesday.
The motorist went over the curb on Brighton Beach Ave. near Brighton Fourth St. and struck Ferdman, pinning him between the front bumper of the vehicle and the shattered glass doors of the bank.
Ferdman, who lived a few blocks from the bank, was rushed to NYU Langone Hospital — Brooklyn, where he later died.
“He was waiting for May 9, because it’s the Day of Victory,” his granddaughter, Svetlana Statsyuk, 46, of Brighton Beach, told the Daily News, referring to the holiday adopted by the former Soviet Union that recognizes the 1945 surrender of Nazi Germany. “That was a great celebration for him.”
“He came here, he loved it here, he didn’t want to move anywhere else,” she added, noting that Ferdman emigrated from his native Ukraine over three decades ago to settle in Brighton Beach. “He had a lot of friends here, he loved to be out and about.”
Apple Bank employee Kenya Hamilton ran up to the entrance Wednesday after she heard screeching tires as the Cadillac — which she said had a handicapped sticker in the windshield — skidded over the curb and crashed into the doors leading to the ATMs.
“I saw the Escalade ... up on the sidewalk — and there was an old man, and he had a walker, and he was laying [by the entrance],” said Hamilton, 48. “He could move and talk ... He was talking and saying his leg was hurting ... I feel bad for the poor man, sitting out here, minding his business.”
“Everybody was calling the ambulance and the police,” she added, noting that one bank employee stayed beside Ferdman until the ambulance arrived. “The driver was still in the vehicle.”
The driver — who pulled the emergency brake and slammed the gas — was not hurt and faced no immediate charges, police said.
“I understand it was just a freak accident, but it’s not getting any easier on us,” said Statsyuk, who stayed at the hospital with her grandfather Wednesday night.
“I usually [visit with him] and we talk, we laugh. He loved to know what’s going on around, and he loved to be outside. We [would be] walking and going to the beach, just to sit there,” she said.
“He loved his family, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren and he lived to see them, and they loved him dearly. Everybody around him loved him,” she added, noting that Ferdman was still mourning the loss of his wife of 70 years, who died just six months ago of natural causes.
“He was wise,” she said through tears. “He was a great man.”