MAN vs CAR

A 49-year-old Hardyston woman was found dead in her homethis afternoon and her husband was discovered there with a severe head wound, police said.

The incident was reported at about 1:20 p.m. when police responded to an address on Mountain Road "for a report of an unknown medical emergency," police said in a statement.

Dawn Yurchak was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Her husband, James Yurchak, had a head wound and was airlifted by New Jersey flight paramedic's to Morristown Memorial Hospital, police said. He is listed in critical condition, a hospital spokesperson said.

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A slick coating of snow and ice fell on New Jersey


Jersey roads today, leading to hundreds of accidents and widespread slow going during the evening commute.

Snow this afternoon changed over to freezing rain and sleet by evening, a treacherous combination whose timing seemed pegged to the rush-hour slog home. As of early this evening, the majority of the accidents were spinouts or minor collisions, and no serious injuries were reported, according to the State Police.

The wicked weather's effects were expected to linger until Thursday, with a flood watch in effect for Bergen, Camden, Passaic, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Morris, Burlington, Salem, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren counties.

Today's wrecks were scattered throughout the state, but appeared slightly worse in South Jersey, where numerous crashes occurred on the New Jersey Turnpike and Route 295 in Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties, police said.


In Linden, an afternoon accident involving a tractor trailor and a number of cars on northbound Routes 1&9 kept the northbound lanes closed until about 3 p.m., police Sgt. William Turbett said.

Icy road conditions contributed to the crash, which caused five people to have minor injuries, police said. Linden police were handling 20 accidents during the afternoon. On most days, they only get two, they said.
Jerry McCrea/The Star-LedgerRescue crews work at the scene of an accident involving a commerical van and a car on Route 287 in Morristown.

In Edison, Route 1 North was shut down for more than five hours after a garbage truck collided with a pick-up and then struck a utility pole as a result of the icy conditions, Sgt. Tom Marino said.

No one was injured, but a three-quarter mile stretch of Route 1 between the two intersections where Old Post Road crosses the highway was closed at 2 p.m., Marino said. The road remained shut down five hours later, with no relief in sight, he said.

"It's a mess, not counting the hundreds of other accidents we have," Marino said.

Woodbridge police received 47 reports of accidents in less than three hours, including one crash where a utility pole was knocked down onto Route 9 near Green Street, leaving one lane open for much of the rush hour.

"As officers are coming to work, we're sending them out to accidents," Lt. George Conklin said.

The state Department of Transportation had more than 1,300 plows and trucks out on the state's highways, spreading salt to prevent to roads from icing up, spokeswoman Erin Phalon said.

But crews faced challenges because of the combination of freezing rain, dropping temperatures and the rush-hour traffic influx, Phalon said.

"Our crews are working as quickly as they can to plow and salt the roadways," she said.

Starting at 1:30 p.m., the New Jersey Turnpike Authority reduced the speed limit to 45 mph along the turnpike from Interchange 8 up to the George Washington Bridge, authority spokesman Joe Orlando said.

Orlando said workers started spreading salt around 11 a.m. and would continue through the night to keep ice off the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway. Between the two highways, the authority had 253 of its own plows working, and another 126 contractors focused only on the Parkway, he said.

In addition to the trouble on the roads, arriving flights faced delays of more than an hour at the region's three airports, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Some departing flights were also slowed at Newark Liberty International Airport, according to the FAA.

On Wednesday, expect a messy morning commute as slushy conditions are left behind from the storm. It will slowly start to warm up, reaching the lower 40s.

The dangerous conditions move out late Wednesday, leading to a nice Thursday. The flood watch is scheduled to be lifted Thursday morning, according to the National Weather Service.

Friday will be mostly cloudy with some rain or snow at night. Saturday will be cold under partly sunny skies.

NY man held in bus slashing

A Brooklyn man is charged with slashing the face of a homeless man aboard a bus on the Garden State Parkway over the weekend.The man was taken to the hospital by NJ EMT's

New Jersey State Police say Juan Mateo used a box cutter to slash the face of Heraldo Jacobo aboard a bus heading northbound near mile marker 68 in Barnegat.

Mateo is charged with aggravated assault, terroristic threats, possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

He is being held on $150,000 bail at the Ocean County Jail.

Details on the victim's condition were not immediately available.

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Greenville Hospital closing

The State Health Planning Board voted 6-0 this afternoon to recommend allowing LibertyHealth Systems to close Greenville Hospital after a three-hour hearing at the Holiday Inn in East Windsor.

The commissioner of the Department of Health and Senior Services, Heather Howard, has 120 days to act on the board's recommendation.

Trenton man in critical condition after beatingA city man was clinging to life Saturday night after he was badly beaten in the head after an argument with another man early Saturday, according to police.
Oscar Peeples, 39, was in critical condition at Capital Health System at Fuld hospital, officials said. He suffered several lacerations and multiple contusions to his head,NJ EMT's and Paramedics treated the injuries and rushed the victim to the hospital's Intensive Care Unit, police said.
Peeples was arguing with an unknown male on the corner of Nassau and Miller streets at around 12:09 Saturday morning when the assault occurred, police said.
The suspect was described as a black male, 6 feet tall, wearing a black jacket.
Police canvassed the area yesterday morning looking for possible witnesses.
Detective Jason Astbury investigated the assault. When he arrived at the hospital to interview Peeples, he found the victim unresponsive.
Anyone with information on the assault is asked to call Astbury at(609) 989-4168 or the Trenton police confidential tip line at (609) 989-3663.
Crime Stoppers of Greater Trenton(Link), at (609) 278-8477, has offered a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect.

Bergen County will launch a paid ambulance corps to augment overworked volunteers in busy boroughsThe plan is to use ambulances from county training facilities, staff them with salaried emergency medical technicians, and dispatch them to towns when local EMTs are not available, County Executive Dennis McNerney said.

To pay the EMTs, the county will bill the insurance companies of the patients they treat, McNerney said."No way is this a county takeover," McNerney said in an interview. "We're not saying [to volunteer EMTs].We're going to take over your ambulance.' We want to work hand in hand" with them, he said.

The move follows a state report last fall that found New Jersey's system of 25,000 volunteer and professional emergency medical responders to be in "near crisis" and in need of statewide coordination. Volunteer services in North Jersey are continually suffering from a manpower shortage, the report said.Robert RiccardellaMcNerney's chief of staff, said he was disappointed state health officials haven't acted on any of the report's suggestions. "The state report was great, but we're not going to wait for them," he said. "We have immediate needs, now.The proposed county system, expected to start before spring, has been discussed since 2006, McNerney said. But the need has become more urgent since the closing of Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood, which has strained volunteer EMT service in several towns, he said. Ambulance crews in the area are working more hours because they're driving longer round trips through traffic to reach hospitals."It's very hard on the volunteers," Riccardella said. "We're seeing it countywide. They need someone, not to take over, but to assist, particularly during the daytime."

The county will use a $100,000 grant from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs to cover start-up costs, McNerney said. The county already owns eight ambulances, which it uses to train EMTs. It needs a state license to use the vehicles for hospital runs.

The service will be operated by the county Department of Public Safety. The county plans to use two or three of its ambulances, adding more if necessary, Riccardella said.

Bill Kroepke, who has served as a volunteer EMT for the past 39 years, opposes a paid county ambulance service. He believes volunteers can handle the job.

"Personally, I'm against it," said Kroepke, president of the Pascack Valley Volunteer Ambulance Association(link), which includes 21 municipalities.

"Up here in the Pascack Valley area, we're doing quite well by our cooperative mutual aid agreement," said Kroepke, who is also captain of the Washington Township Volunteer Ambulance Corps,(Link) and coordinator of the Pascack Valley Mutual Aid Group of seven towns, including Westwood, where Pascack Valley Hospital was located.

"Very seldom do we run short of rigs," he said. "We're stretched, but we're holding our own."

However, he acknowledged that some towns would welcome the county's help "because it takes the heat off their lack of membership."

Gloucester County is the only county in the state with paid EMTs. Its service began in 2007, said Tom Slater, spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services.

Some municipalities in Bergen County already have paid EMTs in addition to volunteers. Paramus switched to this type of "hybrid" ambulance service last January to get rescue workers to emergencies more quickly, said Mayor James Tedesco.



"We had a response time problem – not a quality of care problem, but a response problem -- especially during the daytime," Tedesco said.

The new system has "greatly improved" response time, Tedesco said. Paid EMTs can go directly to the scene, unlike volunteers who have to leave home or business to first pick up an ambulance, he said.

Before paying their EMTs, Paramus could not recruit enough volunteers to meet the demand of emergency calls, Tedesco said. Paramus EMTs earn $12 an hour, on a par with those at local hospitals, he said. Under the hybrid system, the EMTs may work voluntarily, paid an hourly wage, or do a combination of both, he said.

"Volunteerism is extremely important," said Tedesco, a volunteer fire chief for 30 years. "For me, this was a way to keep volunteerism alive and well, but also meet our fiduciary responsibility, by providing hourly employees."

The borough projects that third-party billing, not taxpayers, will cover the costs of providing the EMT services, Tedesco said. Sixty percent of the patients transported by ambulance in Paramus are non-residents who are there shopping, or just driving through, he said.

Fair Lawn used to rely on mutual aid with Hawthornefor additional EMTs, but decided to supplement its volunteers with a private commercial ambulance service in 2006, said Borough Manager Tom Metzler.

The 60 Fair Lawn volunteers,(Link) who take 80 percent of ambulance calls, at first resented the idea of hiring paid EMTs, Metzler said.

"This is a normal human reaction," he said. "Perhaps they felt threatened that we'd eliminate volunteers, or were reluctant to acknowledge" that they needed help, he said. By last year, however, they were in favor of it, he said.

"Let me tell you, dollar for dollar, shared services has worked for us.

A 16-year-old Jersey City girl suffered a collapsed lung this morningwhen she was stabbed by a woman claiming to be a prostitute.

Busted on aggravated assault and weapons charges was Dominique "Nini" Clark, 19, of Bidwell Avenue, police said.

According to police reports, the victim and a 19-year-old female friend had met a man last night and gone to the first-floor apartment he rents in a building on Academy Street.

As the man left to buy cigarettes, he met Clark outside the building, and when she said she was cold, he let her into his apartment, reports said.

After the man left again, an argument began between Clark, who said she wanted to be alone with him, and the two girls, who said they wanted to stay, police said. Clark, who appeared to be drunk, picked up a knife in the kitchen and stabbed the victim in the back of the left shoulder, puncturing her lung, before the girls chased her away, reports said.

Police said the victim was taken to Jersey City Medical Center, but an update on her condition was not available because a hospital spokesman said there was no record of her there.The other girl, who said she and the victim knew Clark, was also slashed on the left hand, police said. Officers found blood in the apartment, in the hallway and in the building's vestibule, reports said.

A former Little Egg Harbor fire commissioner admitted today to pocketing more than $1,600 in raffle proceeds that should have gone to the fire company.
Woodrow Nelson Jr. pleaded guilty to official misconduct in the same courtroom where another former member of the Mystic Island Volunteer Fire Co. District No. 2, Leroy Kaufman, was sentenced earlier this week to three years' probation for stealing a district truck, state Criminal Justice Director Gregory Paw said.

Both proceedings, before Superior Court James Citta in Toms River, came two weeks after Citta ordered a third former fire commissioner, Edward "Tony" Kluver, to spend three years in state prison for participating in the truck theft scheme with Kaufman.
In the first case, Nelson, 50, of Absecon, admitted using his position to steal $1,640 in proceeds from the sale of raffle tickets meant to benefit the fire company, Paw said. He said Nelson admitted that rather than turning the money over to the fire company, he kept it for himself.

Kaufman, 66, pleaded guilty Oct. 1 to theft when he and Kluver signed over to each other a pick-up truck and an SUV that the fire district owned.

Kaufman admitted he took title in early 2002 to a 1993 Chevrolet Blazer and Kluver admitted to taking a 1996 Dodge Ram 1500 truck that they then reregistered through the Motor Vehicle Commission in their names. Kluver claimed he paid $250 for the pickup, which was worth more than $10,000, but Paw said neither man paid anything for either truck.

Kluver, 48, pleaded guilty Oct. 18 to official misconduct and Citta sentenced him Jan. 18 to three years in prison.

Nelson is scheduled to be sentenced on June 27.