Days From Daddy-Daughter Dance, Man Killed At South Amboy YMCA

SOUTH AMBOY, NJ — It was Benjamin "Benny" Navarrete's responsibility to pick up his 6-year-old daughter from her after-school program at the South Amboy YMCA. Every day, like clockwork, he would leave his job at Verizon and be there waiting for her at 5 p.m. sharp.

And this Friday, father and daughter were supposed to go to a daddy-daughter dance at the Sayreville VFW, and Navarrete was excited for it, his friends said, even buying his daughter a new dress.

Except on Monday, Jan. 27, Navarrete was killed in what appears to a freak accident. He was hit by an out-of-control driver outside the Y's front door just seconds after buckling his daughter into her car seat.

"We were told he put her safely in her car seat and was walking to the driver's side and that's when he was struck," said Rita Lewin, his cousin who grew up with Navarrete in Brooklyn. "By the time I got to the hospital Monday night, he was already gone."

Navarrete was standing outside of his Mitsubishi Outlander when he was hit at 4:58 p.m. Monday, the Middlesex County prosecutor said. He was airlifted to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, but pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m. The driver who hit him, a 53-year-old South Amboy man, appears to have lost control of his Toyota Corolla and plowed into another vehicle. That car then hit Navarrete. There is a steep hill headed down to the YMCA, and the car's brakes may have failed.

The 6-year-old girl was found outside the Outlander, Lewin said. Miraculously, she was not injured, but taken to the hospital as a precaution and kept overnight. She was released Tuesday.

The little girl does not know her father died, and kept asking for him when she was in the hospital, Lewin said.

"She does not appear to remember what happened and seems to be in shock," said Lewin. "She just kept asking for her dad at the hospital. They're going to have to tell her."

The force of the impact was so great his body was thrown over 20 feet, Lewin said, possibly into the glass doors of the YMCA.

The after-school program at the South Amboy Y is very popular and is open to all children in the South Amboy/Sayreville area, said YMCA director Paul Casey.

Many of Navarrete's friends and family said they were too upset to speak to a Patch reporter. An acquaintance of his from Brooklyn said "shock and disbelief" spread through his network of friends Monday night.

"I'm just in shock," said the friend, who didn't want to give her name out of respect for his family. "He was a really great guy, a really warm person."

Navarrete is remembered as a loving family man; the 6-year-old girl was actually his step-daughter, but he loved her like his own, Lewin said. He also has a 16-year-old daughter who lives in Brooklyn.

"He was a hands-on Dad and he was very reliable: If he says he's gonna be there, he'll be there," said Lewin.

Born and raised in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Navarrete moved to Sayreville when he married Camara Navarrete in 2015. He worked as a dispatch manager at Verizon, a company he'd been with since graduating high school.

"He's quiet and very reserved, but loving," said Lewin. "He loved that little girl like she was his own daughter. He loved being a dad. In fact, the night before he died she came into their room and asked if Dad could lie down with her 'till she fell asleep. He fell asleep in her bedroom, Camara told me. So that's the last memory she'll have of her dad."

The husband and wife were planning a trip to Tahiti later this year, and were competing against each other to lose weight, Lewin said. Monday was their "cheat" day, so they were going out for ice cream.

No charges have been filed in the crash. It is being investigated by Detective David Keegan of the South Amboy Police Department and Detective Mark Morris of the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office. Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Keegan at (732) 721-0111 or Detective Morris at (732) 745-4194.

Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

Photos provided to Patch by the family.