Crash kills expectant couple

Premature baby boy survives

NEW YORK — The young couple, married just a year, were looking forward to welcoming their first child into their tight-knit community of Orthodox Jews. Now relatives and neighbors are left to raise their infant after the couple were killed early Sunday when a hit-and-run driver struck their car but doctors managed to save the unborn baby.

The driver of a BMW slammed into the livery cab carrying Nachman and Raizy Glauber, both 21, in Brooklyn as they headed to a hospital, said Isaac Abraham, a neighbor of Raizy Glauber’s parents.

The engine of the livery car ended up in the backseat, where Raizy Glauber, who was seven months’ pregnant, was sitting before she was ejected, Abraham said. Nachman Glau- ber was pinned in the car.

Both of the Glaubers were pronounced dead at hospitals, where doctors performed a cesarean section on the mother to deliver the baby.

Their son, weighing about 4 pounds, was in serious condition, Abraham said. The livery cab driver was treated for minor injuries. Both the driver of the BMW and a passenger fled and were being sought, police said.

On Saturday, Raizy Glauber “was not feeling well, so they decided to go” to the hospital, said Sara Glauber, Nachman Glauber’s cousin.

Jewish law calls for burial of the dead as soon as possible, and hours after their deaths, the Glaubers were mourned by at least 1,000 people at a funeral outside the Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar synagogue.

“If one had to go, the other had to go too because they really were one soul,” said Sara Glauber.