‘DESTROYED MY FAMILY’
Stepson calls for justice in smashup that killed immig Uber driver
One of two men killed in Brooklyn when an out-of-control unlicensed driver ran a red light was an immigrant from Bulgaria who drove for Uber and loved to travel, his devastated stepson recalled Tuesday.
Stancho Stanchev, 51, died when a speeding Toyota Camry blew through a red light in Bensonhurst and plowed into his Honda CR-V. A pedestrian, 60, was also killed Monday afternoon in the horrific chain-reaction crash.
The caught-on-camera chain-reaction crash sent Stanchev’s SUV spinning like a top at 18th Ave. and 64th St., where it fatally struck the pedestrian before leaving Stanchev dead behind the wheel. The pedestrian’s name has not been released.
Stanchev’s wife was with him in the SUV, and she remained hospitalized Tuesday in stable condition. Stanchev was not driving for Uber at the time of the crash.
Stanchev’s stepson Rezo Bunturi, 26, said the crash destroyed his family, and that he hopes the Toyota Camry’s driver is prosecuted.
“I want justice to be served,” Bunturi said. “Like straight up. Since he destroyed my family, I can’t say I wish him the same, I don’t want to wish bad to any individuals, but he f——d my life so.
“There’s nothing to say to him. What’s going to change? He already f—-d my life up.”
Cops charged Vitaliy Konoplyov, 49, with manslaughter and aggravated unlicensed operation. Konoplyov, of Coney Island, was in a hospital on Tuesday, and had not been arraigned in the case.
“I really hope he’s going to realize what he’s done and struggle with it,” Bunturi said.
Konoplyov was barreling south on 18th Ave. when he blew through a steady red light at 64th St. about 12:45 p.m. Monday and T-boned Stanchev’s SUV heading east on 64th St., sparking the deadly chain reaction, cops said.
In all, five people were hospitalized after the crash, including Muibov Amredden, 46, who miraculously survived after being thrust from the back seat of Konoplyov’s Toyota into the car’s windshield. Cops said his seat belt was not fastened. He suffered lacerations to his face.
Relatives said he was getting a ride with the driver to the subway.
Konoplyov was not seriously hurt and remained at the scene before he was taken into custody.
Bunturi was at work as a legal assistant to a judge in a Justice Department immigration court when he got word of the crash.
“I received a call: ‘Your mom is at the hospital. Maybe you should come,’ and I just went,” Bunturi said.
Doctors at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn told him his stepfather did not survive and he told his mother.
“It was rough,” Bunturi said. Bunturi’s mother, Tina Lomsadze, immigrated to the U.S. from Tbilisi, Georgia, about 20 years ago. Bunturi stayed behind in Georgia and was raised by his grandparents.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., Lomsadze met her future husband, Stanchev, who had immigrated from Sofia, Bulgaria. “I love him like a father,” Bunturi said “I never had a father.”
He said his parents loved to travel.
“We would have a lot of dinners, sometimes go to a restaurant,” Bunturi said. “My mother and Stan would sometimes travel. They had something planned for next week. Usually they go to the old towns.
“Now I don’t have a chance to travel with them,” Bunturi said. “I always thought I would have a chance to.”
The city’s Department of Transportation last month removed 18th Ave. from its list of priority corridors for street safety improvement.