Prosecutor: Driver in Route 17 telephone pole crash that ejected one was ‘drinking heavily’

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A 33-year-old Mahwah man whose Range Rover plowed into a telephone pole on Route 17, flipped and seriously injured two brothers — one of whom was ejected — was “drinking heavily” before the crash, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said this afternoon.

Jerry DeMarco

07/13/2013 8:32 p.m.

Edward Davis (above left/top & bottom) was at police headquarters this afternoon after being treated at Hackensack University Medical Center and released. He was being taken to the Bergen County jail on $35,500 bail, charged with two counts of criminal assault by auto and DWI.

The dark blue, 2003 Range Rover careened off the highway north of Woodland Avenue and hit the pole outside the Exxon station next to the Outback Steakhouse around 2:20 a.m.

Front seat passenger Clint Callahan, 25, of Ramsey (above, middle) was ejected and suffered serious internal injuries, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said. He remained in serious condition following emergency surgery immediately after he arrived at Hackensack University Medical Center.

The back-seat passenger, 23-year-old James Callahan, also of Ramsey, sustained facial injuries, the prosecutor said.

Route 17 north was closed from 2:30 – 10: 30 a.m. while the wreckage was removed, Rochelle Park police and the Bergen County Sheriff’s Fatal Accident Unit investigated and members of the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office Bureau of Criminal Identification collected evidence.

Rochelle Park firefighters and EMS workers also responded, said Detective Jim DePreta.

The incident remains under investigation, with the expectation of further charges, he said.

MUGSHOT: Rochelle Park PD

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