Foggy Friday Leads to Several Accidents

Last Friday's wet weather brought slippery roads and foggy conditions to the area, resulting in at least three separate car accidents in Verona and Cedar Grove within a 24-hour period on Jan. 27.

The first was around 2 a.m. on Bloomfield Avenue in Verona, as a thick overnight fog had settled. A Mercury Grand Marquis being driven by a 35-year-old female from Port Jervis, N.Y. veered off the roadway into the rocks past Mountain Auto Body between Pompton and Sunset Avenues, according to Verona Fire Department Lt. Bill Neal.

Neal said the car flipped on its side before coming to rest between a utility pole and a sign. The Verona Rescue Squad's Heavy Rescue Unit, Verona Police and Verona Fire Department all rushed to the scene.

The driver refused medical treatment, but her passengers, a 29-year-old female, also from Port Jervis, and a 31-year-old man from Matamoras, Penn., were taken to nearby hospitals for "non-life threatening" injuries, Verona Police Captain Mitchell Stern said.

A few hours later, around 7 a.m., two more vehicles were at the corner of Ridge Road and Pompton Avenue in Cedar Grove when a Toyota Camry turning onto Ridge Road crossed the double yellow lines and struck a Ford pick-up truck stopped at the red light, police said.

The Camry driver, a 29-year-old West Orange man, complained of leg pain at the scene but refused medical treatment. He was given a citation for careless driving, police said, who noted his high rate of speed and the slippery road conditions were to blame. The driver of the truck, a 29-year-old Irvington man, and his passenger, a 49-year-old resident of Orange, were taken to Mountainside Hospital in Montclair and treated for minor injuries.

Finally, at 6:35 p.m., a chain-reaction collision resulted in another careless driving citation, this time for a 51-year-old North Caldwell man, who police say caused a four-vehicle crash in the area of Pompton Avenue and Cedar Grove Parkway.

According to a police report, three of the vehicles involved were stopped in traffic heading south on Pompton Avenue when the vehicle driven by the North Caldwell man rear-ended the vehicle in front of him, causing a domino effect, police said.

Three of the four vehicles were severely damaged, and had to be towed away from the scene. Two southbound lanes of Route 23 were shut down and traffic was detoured for approximately an hour while the crash scene was cleared.