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)
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