Bayonne man sentenced to five years in prison for drunk-driving crash that caused horrific injuries
By Michaelangelo Conte/The Jersey Journal
March 25, 2010, 3:42PM

Michael Garbacki, a 20-year-old Bayonne resident, was sentenced to five years in prison today for being drunk when he plowed into three young women on April 18 last year on Port Jersey Boulevard and caused horrific injuries

In January, Garbacki, a resident on Avenue B, pleaded guilty pleaded guilty to assault by auto, driving while intoxicated and two counts of aggravated assault in connection to the crash.

The five-year sentence was negotiated with the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office. He will have to serve at least 85 percent of the sentence before he is eligible for parole.

He was sentenced today in Jersey City by Hudson County Superior Court Judge Kevin Callahan.

Garbacki was behind the wheel of the car that crashed into a parked car and a group of youths, injuring 19-year-old Jillian Elias and 21-year-old Yajaira Montes, both of Bayonne, as well as Bianca Santana, 21, of Asbury Park.

Elias, who was in court today accompanied by her mother, was the most seriously injured.

Her skull was completely detached from her spinal column, although her spinal cord was not severed, officials said. She also suffered brain trauma and has undergone 15 operations for injuries, including 13 fractures and lacerations to her liver, kidney and spleen.

Jersey City liquor store and owner added as defendants in teen car crash lawsuit

Monday, February 01, 2010
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A Jersey City liquor store and its owner will be added to the list of defendants in the civil suit against a Bayonne man who caused horrible injuries to three women during a drunk driving crash on the Bayonne/Jersey City border last year.

On Jan. 20, Michael Garbacki, 20, of Avenue B, pleaded guilty to assault by auto, driving while intoxicated, and two counts of aggravated assault in connection to the April 18, 2009 incident.

As a condition of the plea, the underage drinker also admitted that he purchased the beer he drank that night at Van Liquor and Grocery Store on Communipaw and Mallory avenues. At the time of the crash, his blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit for driving in New Jersey.

Garbacki was 19 at the time of the incident and according to New Jersey law, liquor cannot be sold to anyone under the age of 21.

Christian LoPiano, the Hoboken-based attorney for Jillian Elias, the most severely injured victim, had already filed a lawsuit naming as defendants both Garbacki and the owner of the vehicle he was driving.

Last week, LoPiano filed an amended complaint that adds Van Liquors and its owner, Luan Nyugen, as defendants.

The suit asserts that the business and owner knew or should have known that Garbacki was too young to purchase alcohol yet sold him a quantity sufficient to render him "a foreseeable danger to himself and others."

Repeated attempts to reach the liquor store and Nyugen were unsuccessful.

The night of the accident Garbacki plowed into a car and a group of youths on Port Jersey Boulevard, injuring Elias, 19 and Yajaira Montes, 21, both of Bayonne, as well as Bianca Santana, 21, of Asbury Park.

Exactly!

Quote:
From what I remember it was very popular with people from Jersey City and went down hill when the car thieves from Jersey City started showing up with stolen cars and starting trouble in the 90s and early 2000s. They would follow the teens with nice cars until they parked them and stole them too when they went home.

If anything, Jersey City made it popular!!!
Just like myself & my old car club made Dunkin Donuts on 440 a popular spot to hang out on a Friday night.
It all started a few years ago, just about 15 or 20 of us going there to hang out & show our cars off a lil right before hitting a carshow the next day.
That had to end for us when the kids from different cities started to come, wanted to race & start troubble & then they started to race on 440.
All I remember is how "WE" made that spot hot first!!!

Global has been known for drag races for as long as I can remember. It is a Hudson County version of a down scaled Ave P is in Newark. Maybe it has changed now but I know it wasn't just a place Bayonne teens went. It was well known through out the county.

Global Terminal needs to have a sign that says private property or something like that. When they have alot of these racers down there, trap them in & start running plates & etc. After enough times of this going on, these kids will get the idea!
Alot of these kids are underage drinkers, smoking weed & have stolen cars & no paperwork anyway.
Im also thinking, isnt this for the PAPD to take care of & not the local PD?

Site of crash is notorious

Thursday, April 23, 2009
By MOLLY GRIFFIN
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Bayonne remains grief- stricken over Saturday's crash in which 19-year-old Michael Garbacki of Avenue B allegedly drove into a group of people, critically injuring two. But Jersey City police and Bayonne students aren't surprised by what took place in a parking area along Port Jersey Boulevard at around 1:40 a.m.

"A lot of people are talking about it," said one 17-year-old Bayonne High School sophomore after dismissal yesterday. "(But) people aren't really shocked."

Both cops and kids said the site of the accident - near Global Terminal along the Bayonne/Jersey City border - is a popular late-night drag racing location for Bayonne youth. Police described the area as a persistent problem spot.

"It's mostly kids from Bayonne that come there and hang out," said Jersey City Police Lt. Edgar Martinez. "We go down and we remove them, and then they come back again."

BHS students painted a fairly lawless picture of "Global," as they referred to it, although they said the hangout's popularity has waned since police have cracked down.

Asked what they do there, the 17-year-old sophomore responded, "Smoke and drink. Not anymore though, because it's kinda corny now."

With knowing nods from classmates, a ninth-grader added, "A lot of people go there, especially for racing."

Garbacki faces charges of assault by auto, driving while intoxicated, and two counts of aggravated assault.

As a result of the crash, Bayonne residents Jillian Elias, 19, and Yajaira Montes, 21, are both hospitalized in the intensive care unit at the Jersey City Medical Center. Montes suffered a broken neck and Elias is paralyzed, according to statements made in court.

Police have not said that Garbacki was drag racing.

BHS Principal Richard Baccarella declined to comment.

"We have increased patrols down there. But kids are going to go down there," Martinez said. "Movies like 'Fast and Furious' glorify drag racing. But the movies never talk about the consequences.

"When we have the manpower, we are down there patrolling more," Martinez added. "But our focus has to be on the city."