SUV FLIPS IN RUMSON
Watched by onlookers, below, emergency responders pulled a woman from her car after it flipped over on West River Road in Rumson. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
One woman was taken to the hospital today after she flipped her sport utility vehicle in Rumson’s business district Monday morning.
Despite the scary looking scene, with the car resting on its driver’s side in the middle of the road, the unidentified woman appeared to make it out of the accident with no major injuries.
The cause of the accident is not yet known, authorities said.
The victim appeared rattled, but OK, after the accident. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
When emergency responders arrived on scene at about 11:20 a.m., the light blue Honda CRV the woman was driving was resting in the middle of West River Road, between Rumson Pharmacy and Undici restaurant. The only occupant of the car, a woman appearing to be middle-aged, was trapped in the car.
Firefighters cut the windshield out of the car and pulled the woman out. When they placed her on a stretcher, her neck was in a brace and, trembling, she held her head.
One woman in the crowd that gathered around the accident said, “she’s lucky she’s not dead.”
Police Chief Richard Tobias said details of the accident were still coming in at about 11:45, and he was unsure of the cause of the accident.
Cynthia Gardella, whose business office is in front of where the accident happened, said she was told by a man who saw the accident that the woman was driving west on the street and hit a parked Dodge Ram pickup, causing her car to flip over.
One woman who heard the accident said it sounded like a garbage truck slamming an empty Dumpster on the blacktop. Gardella said it was an alarming sound that sent her outside to see what happened.
“I’ve never heard a sound like that before. I thought that a water truck had lost its axle, like something really big and metal fell out of the vehicle,” Gardella said. “And it was that.”