Assault charges against shoulder-riding driver whose car slammed motorcyclist

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A motorist was driving on the shoulder or Route 208, trying to beat the rest of the traffic, when his car struck and dragged a motorycyle more than 60 yards, seriously injuring the cyclist and landing the driver in jail on aggravated assault charges.

Jerry DeMarco

05/12/2011 7:43 p.m.

James Sarvis (BCPO PHOTO)

James Sarvis, 22, a self-employed barber from Teaneck, was driving his 2009 Toyota Scion “at a high rate of speed… in an apparent attempt to pass traffic that had slowed in the proper lanes of travel,” Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said.

Unaware that Sarvis was coming, 21-year-old Thanh Nguyen of Fair Lawn pulled his 2005 Kawasaki onto the highway from Plaza Road around 3:15 Wednesday afternoon, Molinelli said. He was immediately struck.

Nguyen is in Hackensack University Medical Center with serious injuries that are not considered life-threatening, the prosecutor said.

Sarvis, meanwhile, was charged after an investigation by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Fatal Accident Investigation Unit and the Fair Lawn Police Department.

His bail was set at $25,000 cash, pending a May 18 Municipal Court hearing in Fair Lawn.

Click here to follow Daily Voice Hackensack and receive free news updates.