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Athanios Dimitriou and a 56-year-old companion from North Bergen were having lunch under a canopy in the parking lot of the Ascension Greek Orthodox Church on Anderson Avenue when both were struck by a BMW 328 shortly before 11:30 a.m. Sept. 11.
The driver – a fellow parishioner who, coincidentally, is also 77 – had accidentally hit the gas and backed into them, Fairview Police Capt. Michael Martic said.
Detective Sgt. Anthony Schmitt, Sgt. Sevan Kasparyan and Officers William Ospina, Samer Abulebda and David Marciano immediately began rendering medical aid, the captain said.
Both men were taken to Hackensack University Medical Center – the younger man with a cut on his forehead and Dimitriou with a severe cut on his inner thigh that required a tourniquet as well as and life-saving measures aboard the ambulance, Martic said.
The Greek-born Dimitriou – who once owned and operated Sonia Café on University Plaza in Hackensack -- was pronounced dead at the hospital the following day.
No criminal complaints were filed, the captain said. The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Fatal Accident Investigations Unit assisted Fairview police in determining the cause of the crash.
A funeral service for Dimitriou was conducted at the Ascension Church on Monday, Sept. 18, followed by interment in George Washington Memorial Park in Paramus. The A.K. Macagna Funeral Home in Cliffside Park handled the arrangements, which included a wake at their Anderson Avenue facility on Sunday.
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