Driver Hospitalized after Flipping Toyota on Eder Ave. [UPDATE]

A 21-year-old man suffered severe injuries after driving into a shin-high retaining wall and flipping his car on Eder Avenue in Wyckoff late Friday afternoon, police and fire officials said.

The man, a Wyckoff resident who police on the scene would not identify, was taken to an area hospital with a severe arm laceration and a wound to the head, according to Sgt. Dale Winters.

He was also issued a summons for careless driving, Wyckoff Police Chief Benjamin Fox said Saturday.

According to multiple emergency responders at the scene the driver was heading west up Eder Avenue just after 4 p.m. in a green Toyota sedan when the vehicle collided head-on with a retaining wall on the north side of the street.

"He said he swerved out of the way to avoid some animals," according to Winters, who said he had gotten the information from the injured driver before he was transported from the scene of the accident.

After hitting the approximately 6-inch high wall the car flipped over onto its roof, according to Deputy Chief Joe Vanderplaat. 

Sgt. Winters said that the man was able to extricate himself from the overturned Toyota, but was visibly dazed afterwards.

The victim "had a pretty good cut on his arm" with arterial bleeding and another wound on his head, Winters said. 

The patient was transported to the hospital and fire and police crews remained on the scene while a towing company righted the destroyed Toyota and removed it from the street. 

Chief Fox said that evidence at the scene suggested that the 21-year-old was driving near the speed limit at the time of the accident. A witness at the scene said he believed the vehicle was traveling faster than the 40 miles per hour posted several hundred feet away on Russell Avenue.

"He was doing at least 50 up the block," according to an Eder Avenue homeowner who did not want to be identified. "I can't believe he walked away from this."

Neighbors gathered around the scene of the accident were surprised that the man was still alive, but not shocked that the accident had occurred on this particular street.

"There's lots of speeding on this block," one onlooker said. "Students use this street as a cut-through to the high school."

 is about three blocks west of Eder Avenue.  

According to both the onlooker and the homeowner, a fatal accident occurred about 15 years ago up Eder Avenue toward Vance Avenue, and neighbors had petitioned the township do something about the allegedly dangerous back road.

Fox said Saturday that he had responded to the scene of the accident mentioned by the neighbor, which occurred on Eder and Fairview avenues. 

"A vehicle came through the stop sign and collided with a vehicle on Eder," Fox said. "A young girl of high school age died."

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