Yet Another Traffic Mishap Highlights Problems At Accident-Plagued Edgewater, N.J. Intersection
EDGEWATER, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- Dramatic video shows multiple people save a pedestrian moments after she was struck by a car in Bergen County.
The incident happened on River Road in Edgewater, a road that residents have said for years is now more like a highway where you have to cross at your own risk, CBS2's Lisa Rozner reported Wednesday.
There were tense moments as good Samaritans are seen lifting a car while others pull a 37-year-old woman out from underneath.
"Thirty seconds before the bus pulled up, I hear a loud thud to my right," witness Joe Long said.
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Police say the pedestrian is from nearby West New York and was taken to a hospital, but suffered only minor injuries.
"I'm always, always looking over my shoulder and you never know how fast people are going to come out," Long said.
Witnesses said the 19-year-old driver, who is seen on the footage with her hands on her head, didn't see the pedestrian as she turned left from Russell Avenue onto River Road.
Police said she did have the green light, but the pedestrian was in the crosswalk.
Officers ticketed the Nanuet, New York driver for failure to yield to a pedestrian and careless driving.
"It's a lot of traffic. Drivers just aren't paying attention, even with the flashing lights," one woman said.
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The intersection is two blocks from River Road and Garden Place, where one woman said she was also hit while in the crosswalk.
"I crossed and some people stopped and a car swerved behind a car that had stopped and then hit me," the woman said.
After CBS2 covered the problem there in 2018, a year later the county installed more pedestrian signage and a crossing signal. Rozner tried it and even with the lights flashing, cars in one lane did not stop.
While residents said the lit-up crosswalk does help, what they really want is a traffic light.
"It comes down to driver awareness, and it's not so much the pedestrians as it is the drivers' inattentiveness," Edgewater Business Administrator Gregory Franz said.
Franz said police are doing regular traffic details at night. Last month in a two-hour period, nearly 30 summonses were issued.
As for installing another traffic light, Bergen County owns the road and a representative for the county executive said engineers' studies have found a traffic signal isn't necessary there.
