Crime & Safety

Man Rescued After Car Crashes Into Condominium Pool

Officials said they don't yet know what caused the crash into a pool on Center Ave., but said the victim was an elderly male

A man described by Fort Lee Fire Department officials as “somewhat elderly” had to be rescued from a Cadillac early Monday afternoon after crashing the car through a concrete block wall and ending up nose first in a swimming pool behind the Biarritz condominium on Center Ave., officials said.

Fort Lee Fire Chief Jeff Silver and other members of the fire department were at the scene of the accident, along with Fort Lee police and emergency services, after the driver had been rescued from the partially submerged car and transported away in an ambulance shortly after the accident, which occurred at about 1:30 p.m.

“Everybody got here, we pulled him out and the ambulance took him away,” Silver said, adding that the victim appeared to be “conscious and alert.”

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“But the EMS took the normal precautions, boarding him and so on,” Silver said. “And then they transported him for observation to be checked out.”

An eyewitness to the rescue, who declined to give his name, said the man “seemed to be okay” when he was pulled out of the car.

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“They took him out, put him on the board [and] his arms were moving,” the man said.

Silver said it was unclear what caused the accident.

“How it occurred, I don’t know,” he said. “The police are going to do the investigation. But he ended up with his car into the pool. [He] drove through the concrete block wall and then went into the pool.”

Onlookers watched as a tow truck pulled the then empty car out of the pool. The low concrete wall separates the small, private pool area from the rear parking lot of the building at 2180 Center Ave.

Fort Lee police said later Monday that the incident remained under investigation.


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