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UPDATE: AirMed One flew a van driver to Hackensack University Medical Center while his passenger was transported by ambulance after a steel structure carrying by a tractor-trailer slammed into the Paterson Plank Road overpass on eastbound Route 3 in Secaucus and landed on them early this afternoon, responders told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
Westbound Route 3 in the area was reopened tonight but the eastbound lanes remained closed indefinitely while the wreckage was removed and engineers tried to determine how much the bridge structure may have been compromised, authorities told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
Both men were reported critical but alert and conscious following the mishap just before 12:30 p.m., authorities said.
“It’s an absolute miracle that they survived,” Secaucus Mayor Michael Gonnelli, who is a member of the Secaucus Volunteer Fire Department, told The Jersey Journal. “This is one of the worst (entrapments) I’ve seen.”
The eastbound highway remained closed as of 1 p.m., with two westbound lanes open.
The passengers was quickly extricated and taken away by ambulance.
A medical chopper was requested for the driver just after 1:30 p.m. It flew him to HUMC after firefighters removed him through the rear of the van less than a half-hour later.
Jersey City and NJ Transit police sent rescue units, joining more than a dozen units from the Hudson County Sheriff’s Office, as well as Secaucus and Hudson Regional firefighters, North Bergen and Secaucus police and a rig from Meadowlands Hospital. East Rutherford, Lyndhurst and Rutherford were providing mutual aid.
CLIFFVIEW PILOT photo
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