Crime & Safety

Four Sent to Hospital after 4-Car Crash; Medical Issue to Blame, Police Say

Franklin Avenue closed following afternoon accident

Four people were transported to Valley Hospital following a four car accident on Franklin Avenue just before noon on Thursday, according to Wyckoff Police.

A man driving a Ford F250 pick-up truck went into insulin shock and slammed into three vehicles near the intersection of Franklin and Quackenbush avenues, shutting down traffic west of Wyckoff Avenue until 1 p.m.

received a call from the Waldwick Police Department just before noon on Thursday regarding an erratic driver heading from Waldwick into Wyckoff.

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Lieutenant Charlie Van Dyk jumped into his cruiser and headed toward the intersection of Franklin and Wyckoff avenues where he caught up with the driver in the F250 pick-up truck, he said. 

The driver stopped at the light, but then proceeded west on Franklin Avenue and started accelerating, Van Dyk said.

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The pick-up kept traveling west even after Van Dyk flipped on lights and sirens of his unmarked police vehicle.

"I though I had a drunk," Van Dyk said. "Just as I caught up to him he accelerated and went [left] into the opposite lane of traffic."

As the massive pick-up truck veered toward oncoming traffic, quick thinking drivers had just enough time to swerve out of the way and avoid a head-on collision.

"Those cars saw him coming," said Van Dyk. 

The F250 sideswiped a Ford Windstar and an Audi SUV, taking out the left sides of both vehicles, according to police. After losing some speed the pick-up collided with a Buick LeSabre driven by a 91-year-old woman then veered off to left side of the road and came to a stop, Van Dyk said.  

Two women in the Windstar were transported to Valley Hospital with neck and back injuries.

A woman and a child in a car seat were in the Audi when the accident occurred; the woman was transported to Valley Hospital with a neck injury and the child was uninjured.

The 91-year-old woman was uninjured; Van Dyk transported her back to her home. 

The driver of the F250 was also transported to Valley Hospital.

"It looks like all the cars are totaled," Van Dyk said.

No summonses have been issued at this time, but the accident is still under investigation, Van Dyk said.


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