22°
Kyle J. Rodriguez, 23, of Jersey Avenue was hospitalized with a broken arm and leg, among other injuries, following the Tuesday afternoon crash.
An officer in Ridgefield initially reported seeing Rodriguez "recklessly" operating a 2019 Kawasaki on Bergen Boulevard more than 10 minutes earlier, according to a police report in that town.
The officer reported trying to catch up but said he then lost sight of the speeding motorcycle and broke off the pursuit due to concerns for public safety at the busy Edgewater Avenue intersection.
Minutes later came a report of a crash five blocks away at St. Pauls and Greenmount avenues in Cliffside Park.
According to police there, another borough resident was headed north on Saint Pauls Avenue with a female passenger in her 2011 Chevy sedan when she stopped for the stop sign at Greenmount Avenue.
Rodriguez, who was headed east on Greenmount Avenue, drove on the wrong side of the street in an apparent attempt to swerve in front of the sedan but ended up hitting the front left side, the police report says.
The impact threw him onto the front yard of a corner home, it says.
Rodriguez, formerly of Brick Township, was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center with injuries that also included a chipped pelvis and a fractured left ankle, Cliffside Park Deputy Police Chief Vincent Capano said.
Family members said Wednesday that they feared even worse injuries.
The two women in the sedan weren't seriously injured, the deputy chief said. Summonses weren't -- and won't be -- issued to the driver, he noted.
The Bergen County Prosecutor's Fatal Accident Investigations Unit joined borough police at the scene, along with the Bergen County Sheriff's Bureau of Criminal Identification, which collected evidence.
ABC Towing removed both vehicles.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Garfield-Lodi and receive free news updates.
