Update: Utility Pole Split, Juvenile Passenger Hospitalized In Route 17 Crash

UPDATE: A stretch of northbound Route 17 in Upper Saddle River was temporarily closed after an SUV carrying a family of four split a utility pole, downing wires alongside the highway and sending a juvenile passenger to the hospital before dawn Saturday.

At the scene.
Photo Credit: *Joaquin Locero*

Jerry DeMarco

10/02/2021 1:40 p.m.

The youngster was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center with a head cut after their Ford Escape left the roadway and struck the pole around 3:30 a.m. at the highway entrance off the East Crescent Avenue overpass, Detective Capt. Edward Kane said.

The 36-year-old female driver was uninjured, as was an adult and second juvenile passenger, Kane said. Upper Saddle River police were investigating the cause, he said.

Crashes involving utility poles on Route 17 between Waldwick and the New York State line have been common.

Saturday's came a few hours before a massive explosion further up the road on Route 287.

SEE: Massive Route 287 Tanker Truck Explosion Kills Driver, NJSP Confirms

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