KEARNY — What started as relatively minor traffic accident in South Kearny Saturday morning ended with the dramatic rescue of one of the drivers, who jumped off the Passaic River bridge.
According to information provided by both the Kearny Police Department and the Fire Department, the saga unfolded as follows:
At 6:30 a.m., KPD Officers Sean Podolski and Michael Gontarczuk responded to the report of a two-car crash on the bridge, in the northbound lanes of Rt. 1/9, and arrived to find that one vehicle had rear-ended the other.
Also called to the scene were the KFD, to deal with spilled fuel and, along with Kearny EMS, to assist the driver whose car had been hit. That motorist, a 48-year-old Jersey City woman, complained of neck pain and was subsequently transported to University Hospital in Newark.
The other driver, a 27-year-old woman from Newark, was questioned by the police, who said there appeared to be no signs she was under the influence of alcohol.
As she was sitting on the curb, waiting for the interview to continue, she suddenly jumped up, hurdled the center median — running into southbound traffic — climbed over the bridge guardrail and plunged into the frigid waters of the river. Gontarczuk and several firefighters tried to stop her as she was fleeing but could not reach her in time.
It is estimated that she fell about 50 feet to the water, and the current carried her under the span.
KFD and Newark fireboats were alerted, but before they could be launched, the woman — who fortunately was still conscious — drifted to the Newark side of the river. Waiting at a rocky embankment behind a Doremus Ave. chemical company were Gontarczuk, an unidentified witness, KFD Capt. George Harris and Firefighters Johnny Robinson and Javier Fandino, all of whom had run over the bridge to Newark to reach her.
According to authorities, the rescuers were near enough to communicate with the woman, but she did not take the life rope they threw to her. She reportedly “would go face down for awhile and then tread water.”
They continued to talk to her, to coax her, and she finally grabbed the rope and they were able to pull her closer to the shore. At that point, Fandino entered the water, waded out up to his knees and brought her to safety. The time was 7:21 a.m., and she had been in the river approximately 20 minutes.
The rescuers stayed with her — treating her, talking to her, comforting her and keeping her warm — until Newark EMS arrived and took her to University Hospital.
KFD Chief Steve Dyl commended them all for “an outstanding job.”
Dyl said that at the time the woman jumped, luckily “the tide was probably just changing, so there wasn’t a very strong current.” If there had been, this story could have ended differently, despite the best efforts of the determined rescuers.
