Passenger steers livery cab off Turnpike after driver has heart attack

BEYOND BERGEN: A passenger reached over and streered a livery cab into sand barrels outside the Holland Tunnel after the driver suffered what proved to be a fatal heart attack, Port Authority police said.

Photo Credit: *Cliffview Pilot File Photo*

Jerry DeMarco

05/21/2015 6:59 p.m.

The 2004 Lincoln Continental was headed onto the southbound New Jersey Turnpike ramp just after 7:30 last night when the 47-year-old driver from Lincoln Park went into cardiac arrest, the authority’s Joseph Pentangelo told CLIFFVIEW PILOT this afternoon.

“His passenger saw his head snap back as the car drifted out of control,” Pentangelo said. “[H]e then reached over the unconscious driver and was able to steer the car into sand barrels at a construction site.”

The vehicle finally came to rest in Turnpike traffic, he said.

Jersey City Medical Center paramedics conducted CPR while taking the driver to the hospital’s trauma unit, Pentangelo said.

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