City told to pay crash victim's $407G award

Tuesday, February 05, 2008
By PAUL KOEPP
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Jersey City must pay a woman hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages stemming from a 2003 car accident involving a top fire official, a state appeals court ruled last month.

The Appellate Division of Superior Court upheld a 2006 verdict that awarded Carol Caruso, of Jersey City, $407,000 for the injuries she suffered after her car collided with a Fire Department SUV driven by then-Battalion Chief Michael Blanchard.

Blanchard, now a deputy fire chief, was nearing the end of a 24-hour shift on June 5, 2003, when he responded to a reported fire just before 8 a.m., according to his deposition in the lawsuit. He was driving east on Newark Avenue when he slammed into the left rear of Caruso's Lincoln Town Car in the middle of the Monmouth Street intersection.

According to a police report, each driver blamed the other for the accident. Caruso said that Blanchard's flashing lights and sirens were not on, and that she had the green light to go north on Monmouth.

Blanchard said he went through the intersection "with caution" and with his lights and sirens on, the police report said. In his deposition, Blanchard said he had a green light and was traveling about 25 mph.

"The consequences of the impact did not suggest 25 miles per hour," Caruso's attorney, John Schwartz, said in a telephone interview.

According to his deposition, Blanchard went within a week of the incident to see the police officer who filled out the accident report, and told him it was wrong. A new report was then filed with an amended diagram of the accident, deleting indications that Blanchard had switched lanes on Newark Avenue to avoid cars in his way just before he reached the intersection.

The doctor who operated on Caruso's left shoulder months after the accident testified that she had lost 5 to 10 percent of the range of motion in the shoulder. Caruso said she couldn't shop, do chores at home, or do office work at her family's construction business.

"(Caruso) did not, in my opinion, in any way puff or exaggerate her complaints," said Judge Edward O'Connor - who presided over the September 2006 trial - in an opinion denying the city's request for a new trial. "In fact, if anything, she was very conservative in describing the complaints that she had."

The amount of damages, 55 percent of the jury's gross award of $740,000, reflected the jury's finding that Blanchard was 55 percent responsible for the accident, while Caruso was 45 percent at fault. Caruso was issued a summons for failure to yield to an emergency vehicle, but it was later dropped.

Fire and police officials referred questions about the incident to the city attorneys handling the case. Jersey City Corporation Counsel Bill Matsikoudis said the city would petition the state Supreme Court to appeal the decision. He said the basis of the appeal would be that the city does not have to compensate Caruso because her injuries were not "permanent and substantial," an argument the appeals court rejected.

Gov. Jon Corzine, a Hoboken resident, was in the jury pool for the trial, but was not selected.

Man hits utility pole in Downtown Jersey City, reports say

by Michaelangelo Conte
Friday December 21, 2007, 1:52 PM

A man plowed his car into a utility pole in Downtown Jersey City early this morning, though he suffered only minor injuries, police said.

The Kinnelon man drove his Honda Pilot into the pole, at Newark Avenue and Fifth Street, just before 4 a.m., reports said.

The impact caused significant damage to the passenger's side front end of the sports utility vehicle, reports said.

An ambulance responded and emergency medical technicians treated him for a small cut on the side of his head, reports said.

No summonses were issued, reports said, adding that Public Service Electric & Gas workers were called to make repairs to the utility pole, reports said.

I agree. Something does need to be done and things happen slowly because changes in traffic patterns, if not thought out properly, can have devastating effects.

I live in the Hilltop and we have no parks we can walk our children to without crossing over that portion of road where MARIA Skupien was killed. Most parents opt to drive or have their kids play in the street (YES IN THE STREET!) near our homes.

As a member of the Hilltop Neighborhood Association, we have been working to fix this problem from our end of Newark near Dickinson HS, with little luck. This is not going to stop us from continuing to force change.

Then Wednesday night there was a partial building collapse on Pavonia and Baldwin. No traffic cops were sent out and the whole area became mass chaos and gridlock. It took me over an hour to get from Newark and Brunswick to Magnolia and Chestnut.

And don't even get me started on the "two second" lights around the Journal square area. You have two seconds to cross the street or else!

Althea

BTW - Maria Skupien is having a street named after her along Hamilton Park where she lived and raised 12 children. The second and final reading is on the council agenda for January 9, 2008.


Quote:

I agree the existing red lights need to be enforced -- police and/or cameras.

Newark Avenue is like the wild west when you get west of Monmouth-- the street is in dire need of resurfacing -- no wonder no one ever knows where the cross walks are -- it is like driving on the Oregon Trail.

I have written in this forum about the chaos on Newark Avenue. Either it's at a dead stop or a speedway that could rival Indianapolis... with at least 4 schools in this area it is a hazard for everyone. And it's not just downtown. There is NO light or safe place to cross between about Brunswick to past Dickenson High School.
I wrote to the police, the mayor, my councilman and nothing has ever been done. Even after Mrs. Edith Skupien was killed NOTHING has been done. The only time there was any police presence was when the construction under the turnpike was being started. I suggest everyone remind the "elected officials" seeking re election to start taking care of present business in the city.
I have written to the State Dept. of Transportation and got a reply from Kris Kolluri, Commissioner that "Newark Avenue is
a local road and falls under the jurisdiction of Jersey City". You can quote this when someone says "it's not our job".

That intersection is just not designed for modern traffic patterns and the volume that goes through there. Because of the four side streets converging on Newark at an angle, Newark Avenue has a very long middle of the intersection and a short amber light. A good idea would probably be to change the timing on the lights or reverse the direction of traffic on the block of Brunswick and 4th Streets that terminate at Newark so traffic can only travel away from Newark Avenue.

You must get a lat start.

I wish I knew what time of day that was, since it can take me 20 mins to get UP that hill in the morning behind lumbering jitneys cutting into traffic, inattentive drivers staring into space, and generally moving 15MPH up that hill like it was the Matterhorn.

On Newark Avenue it is a free-for-all from the top of the hill down to Brunswick -- buses, trucks and cars race up and down the hill -- they speed through red lights - pedestrians have been hit -- last year an elderly woman was killed by these nuts -- traffic enforcement needs to happen -- every single time the light at Brunswick turns red at least 2 or three drivers run it.