Multi-Car GSP Accident Leaves One Victim Critical

A multi-car accident on the Garden State Parkway on Monday morning caused at least seven injuries, one of them serious, according to Bloomfield Emergency Medical Technician Alex Burde who was at the scene.

Burde, who has worked with the Bloomfield Emergency Medical Squad for three years, said two victims were rushed to University Hospital in Newark, one with life-threatening injuries.  The other had a possible broken leg, he said.

According to a report by North Jersey.com,  police believe a car driving northbound crossed the median and went into the southbound lanes, causing a pileup of at least six cars just after 6:30 a.m.

Burde agreed. “We heard that possibly a driver passed over the median from the northbound lane," he said. "It’s up to the state police to figure out what happened."

The accident occurred near the Brookdale rest stop at Exit 151 and caused the Parkway to be closed off five to ten miles northbound, to exit 159, and even farther southbound, to exit 135 in Clark, said Burde.

“We were trying to get a medivac to land on the highway, to get the critically injured person to the hospital quickly but [the helicopter] was too far away.  It was a lot faster if we just drove them to University Hospital.”

He added, “Bloomfield EMS worked together with the Bloomfield Fire Department and the Clifton Fire Department. They had to use the jaws-of-life on the car that the critical patient came out of.

“An accident this massive doesn’t happen often. I was technically off when we got the call, but when I heard the words, ‘medivac helicopter’ I said, ‘we probably better be heading over there’.”