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TWO DIE IN RTE. 80 COLLISION; CAR REAR-ENDS TRUCK ON SLICK HIGHWAY

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Tuesday, August 20, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B01

A Bronx couple were killed and their two children injured Monday morning when their car spun out of control on rain-soaked Route 80 in Bogota and struck the back of a truck parked on the shoulder, state police said.
Haredin Sokoli, 33, who was driving, and his common-law wife, Farije Xheraj, 32, died at the scene. Neither was wearing a seat belt, state police Sgt. Bob Cooney said.
Lide Sokoli, 11, and her brother, Niam, 10, were in fair condition at Hackensack Medical Center, the girl with a broken leg and the boy with cuts and bruises, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Dr. John LoCurto, director of the hospital’s trauma center, and paramedics Don Holmes and Zach Weissman, as well as numerous Ridgefield Park police, firefighters, and rescue workers, helped remove the children from the back seat, where they were pinned.
Bob Carlson, a senior member of the Ridgefield Park Rescue Squad, said they had to use air bags and hydraulic lifts to raise the truck to allow the paramedics to get to the children.
The accident occurred at 11:35 a.m. in the local lanes of Route 80, about a half-mile from the intersection of Routes 95 and 46, Cooney said.
“There was a truck parked on the right shoulder, eastbound at milepost 67.4 in Bogota, due to a previous accident,” he said. “A 1985 Buick Century was eastbound when the driver lost control for an unknown reason on the wet roadway. It struck the left rear of the parked truck.”
Jeannette Gnecco, 41, of Ridgefield Park, said she saw the traffic jam about noon and noticed the accident ahead. She got off the road an exit before the accident and watched the rescue effort, along with about 30 other people, from the North Street bridge, which overlooks Route 80.
“The had to jack up the truck, pull off the roof of the car to get to the kids,” said James Gnecco, her 46-year-old husband. “You almost couldn’t believe anybody came out of it alive.”
Gail Campbell, 45, of Ridgefield Park also watched the rescue effort with her 12-year-old son, Mark. Her husband, Edward, a 10-year member of the rescue squad, was part of the rescue effort.
“It upsets me,” Campbell said. “Those poor people didn’t know what hit them. . . . Pray for them. That’s all you can do.”

Keywords: BOGOTA; MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT; DEATH

Caption: 2 COLOR PHOTOS BY DANIELLE P. RICHARDS / THE RECORD 1 – A rescue worker holding a child who was trapped in the back seat of a car involved in a fatal accident on Route 80 in Bogota. 2 – The Bronx couple in the front seat died, and their two children were hospitalized with injuries.

ID: 17352895 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

August 20, 1991
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CRASH FAILS TO SLOW A LEADER ON THE JOB AT FIRE AND POLICE ACADEMY

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, August 2, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

For Ron Calissi, a glimpse of mortality when his van collided with a truck nine months ago did not change his life goals: It taught him to pursue them with more vigor.
“They said I died twice, but I don’t remember,” said the 44-year-old director of the Bergen County Police and Fire Academy.
Known for charismatic and energetic leadership at a post he has been reappointed to annually for the past 12 years, Calissi says he is now even more dedicated to his twin goals: preparing his academy students as well as possible, and continuing on a path of personal and professional growth.
“The rudiments start here,” he said of the academy. “That’s our job, to provide a climate conducive to learning modern approaches to solving problems.”
In firefighting education, for instance, the academy is designing a computerized fire-training burn building that he said would be the most advanced in the world.
Another Calissi goal is to make an associate degree the minimum requirement to become a police officer in Bergen County. The state standard is a high school diploma or GED (general equivalency diploma).
The Leonia Police Department requires a bachelor’s degree for entry-level officers, the only one in the county with such a standard.
Calissi is trying to create an environment to make the associate-degree goal a reality. Under an agreement with Ramapo College and Bergen Community College that would go into effect this fall or spring, Bergen County Police and Fire Academy students would be encouraged to take courses toward an associate degree in social science and bachelor’s degree in government, with a minor concentration in sociology.
“This goes to the mission of the academy, which is to professionalize the public-safety community through the offering of higher-education programs that are college-accredited, thereby indirectly raising the standards to the level they should be at,” Calissi said.
People in law enforcement credit Calissi with invigorating a moribund Bergen County Police and Fire Academy when he took over as director 12 years ago. Student enrollment rose from 2,000 then to about 15,000 students today, representing more than 50 percent of the state’s annual public-safety trainees.
Ridgefield Police Chief Lars N. Oyen, a 1967 academy graduate, said the school Calissi now heads is a huge improvement over the one from which he graduated.
“One of the first things that a senior officer said to me was, `Forget everything they taught you at the academy. Now, I’m going to show you how to do it,” Oyen said. “He was right. It was different. It didn’t have the scholastic value that [the academy] has today.”
On a personal level, Calissi, a Franklin Lakes resident, will continue rehabilitating his left leg, which was shattered in the Nov. 8, 1990, accident.
Returning to the academy for a meeting that day, Calissi’s van veered into the path of oncoming traffic as he avoided a vehicle turning from his lane. He collided with a utility truck coming from the opposite direction.
Along with the shattered bones, Calissi broke seven ribs and required transfusion of 15 units of blood.
He was back on the job 30 days after the accident. Although he still undergoes physical therapy and faces further surgery, doctors have told him to expect a complete recovery.
Calissi plans to continue studying toward a doctorate in public management to go with his masters of business administration degree, law degree, and certification as a public manager and financial planner.
He also will continue to teach graduate human-resource management and administrative-law courses at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Keywords: BERGEN COUNTY; POLICE; FIREMAN; SCHOOL; OFFICIAL; MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT; VICTIM; MAHWAH; RON CALISSI

Caption: PHOTO – STEVE AUCHARD / THE RECORD – Ron Calissi in front of a fire simulator at the police and fire academy. He says the school aims to “professionalize the public-safety community.”

ID: 17351342 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

August 2, 1991
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TRUCKER IN FATAL ACCIDENT WAS SOBER

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, July 19, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A04

A tractor-trailer driver arrested Sunday in Teaneck after he left the scene of a Washington Heights accident in which two elderly sisters were killed was not drunk or under the influence of drugs at the time, officials said Thursday.
Blood and urine samples taken from Harold Heitzman at the time of his arrest came up negative in New Jersey State Police laboratory tests, said Terry Benczik, a spokeswoman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Heitzman, who had a Texas driver’s license but lives in Peru, Ind., was released from the Bergen County Jail Monday on $1,000 bail. He was charged with driving while impaired, use of or under the influence of a controlled dangerous substance, eluding police, and going 10 miles above the 55-mph speed limit.
At least the two drug-related charges will likely be dropped, Benczik said.
Betty Rosen, 83, and Claire Muller, 86, both of Manhattan, were on their weekly outing to a restaurant at the time of the accident. Rosen and Muller, holding hands as they crossed the 179th Street-Broadway intersection about 4:15 p.m. Sunday, were struck and killed.
New York police said witnesses supported Heitzman’s statement to Port Authority police officers about 20 minutes after the accident that he was not aware he had hit the women. New York police did not charge Heitzman in the death of the two women because there was no evidence of a crime, said a spokesman for Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.
Heitzman did not heed the lights and sirens of two Port Authority police officers attempting to stop him as he crossed the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey after the accident, police said. He stopped at the junction of Routes 95 and 80 in Teaneck.
A Sept. 10 court appearance had been scheduled for Heitzman in Fort Lee on the charges of impaired driving, eluding police, and speeding.
“Until I speak with my officers and review the case, I can’t make a decision whether the charges will be dropped,” said Matthew Fierro, municipal prosecutor. “I have to see what other charges the police officers have brought against him. He will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law once I review the charges.”
Teaneck Municipal Prosecutor Howard Solomon said he had not seen the complaint and could not comment on it. Heitzman is charged with use of or under the influence of a controlled dangerous substance in Teaneck.
“We’ll go forward with the complaint if it is provable,” Solomon said.

Keywords: MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT; DEATH; NEW YORK CITY; TEANECK; VICTIM

ID: 17349971 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

July 19, 1991
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ENGLEWOOD POLICE DISPATCHER IS KILLED IN MOTORCYCLE CRASH

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Tuesday, July 16, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

A 24-year-old city police dispatcher died and his wife was critically injured in a collision Sunday between their motorcycle and a car, police said.
Ronald Zadrozna of Bergenfield, a dispatcher in Englewood since June 1988, suffered a broken neck in the accident, said Police Lt. Charles Dillon.
Tammy Zadrozna, 23, was in critical condition in Englewood Hospital’s surgical intensive care unit, a hospital spokeswoman said Monday. Mrs. Zadrozna broke her hips and both ankles and sustained serious bruises.
The accident occurred about 9:55 p.m. at the intersection of Engle and Concord streets, Dillon said.
Zadrozna’s 1991 Honda motorcycle and a 1987 Chrysler driven by Claudia Conrado were both northbound on Engle Street when they collided, Police Chief William Luciano said.
“We still don’t know exactly what happened,” Luciano said. “There is no charge at this time, but the case is under investigation.”
Conrado, 32, of West Caldwell was uninjured, Luciano said.
Luciano said Zadrozna was a community-oriented person who would be missed by the Police Department. He was also a volunteer fireman and ambulance worker in Bergenfield and Englewood, and had just taken the test to become a full-time firefighter in Englewood, the chief added.
Deputy Chief Edward Kneisler of the Bergenfield Fire Department said the Zadroznas had been married only three months.
Kneisler recalled Zadrozna as “a good kid” who “had his life snapped from him.” Zadrozna had just bought the motorcycle and brand-new helmets, Kneisler added.
Record Staff Writer Laura Impellizzeri contributed to this article.

Keywords: ENGLEWOOD; POLICE; EMPLOYMENT; MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT; DEATH

ID: 17349513 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

July 16, 1991
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2 DEAD IN N.Y.C. HIT-AND-RUN; TRUCKER ARRESTED ON ROUTE 80

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Monday, July 15, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

A 34-year-old Indiana tractor-trailer driver was arrested in Teaneck on Sunday after he fled the scene of an accident in upper Manhattan in which two elderly sisters were struck and killed by a truck, police said.
The accident occurred about 4:16 p.m. at the intersection of 179th Street and Broadway, said Sgt. Tina Mohrmann, a New York City police spokeswoman.
“We had a tractor-trailer going westbound,” Morhmann said. “He struck two elderly women, both of whom died at the scene.”
Eyewitnesses told police that the women, who had come out of an A & P supermarket near the intersection, were dragged along the pavement several feet by a truck.
Police identified the women as sisters: Betty Rosen, 83, and Claire Muller, 86, both of Manhattan.
A police lieutenant at a bus station at the intersection notified Port Authority Police at the George Washington Bridge about the truck, and two officers on the bridge spotted it, said Port Authority spokeswoman Terry Benczik.
Port Authority Police Officers Dennis Higgins and Michael Bucholz stopped the truck about 4:35 p.m. at the junction of Routes 95 and 80 in Teaneck, Benczik said.
The suspect, identified as Harold J. Weitzman of Peru, Ind.,was charged with eluding police and driving under the influence of a controlled substance, Benczik said.
Additional charges are pending in New York.
Benczik said the suspect was being held at the Port Authority police lockup at the George Washington Bridge and would be transferred to the Bergen County Jail to await arraignment.
Forensic technicians were examining the truck to confirm it was the vehicle involved in the accident, police said.

Keywords: MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT; NEW YORK CITY; TEANECK; WOMAN; AGED; VIOLATION; DEATH; VICTIM

ID: 17349457 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

July 15, 1991
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