Also hospitalized with lesser injuries were both of the Irvington driver's female passengers -- one 28, from Newark, and the other 47, from East Orange, Detective Lt. Edward Kane said.
The downed utility pole strung wires across the entire highway, stranding hundreds of motorists without exits on the southbound roadway near the Ramsey border just before 3 p.m.
Eight vehicles sustained various degrees of damage in a series of chain-reaction collisions, Kane said.
Members of Ramsey Rescue Squad 423 members popped a door to extricate the trio.
Responders from Ramsey, Upper Saddle River, Allendale and Mahwah all were dispatched to the scene, including ambulances from Upper Saddle River and The Valley Hospital.
The highway was reopened just before 6:30 p.m.
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ALSO SEE: Two medical choppers flew two seriously injured victims to Hackensack University Medical Center after a BMW carrying four people overturned and caught fire Sunday afternoon on the northbound Garden State Parkway in Montvale.
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