Bergen officials fail to add safety measures or warning signs many months after two women were killed by cars in Hackensack

FATAL CROSSING: None of the four crosswalks at Passaic Street and Summit Avenue in Hackensack -- including this one used by Carol A. Ventura, who was struck by one vehicle and run over by a second on May 13, 2021 -- have been improved with "Walk/Don't Walk" signs or any other warning to alert pedestrians about turning vehicles, like the one I photographed recently, above.

 

NO AERT FOR DRIVERS: Since Carol A. Ventura's death, Bergen County officials paved Passaic Street and Summit Avenue and repainted faded turn lanes and crosswalks, but failed to add a message on the traffic signals, alerting drivers who get a green arrow to watch for pedestrians.

County gets off cheap 

with new asphalt, paint

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- In the more than 8 months since a 76-year-old Hackensack woman died from injuries after she was run down and then run over in a crosswalk, Bergen County officials have failed to add "Walk/Don't Walk" signs at the intersection, Passaic Street and Summit Avenue.

County officials also haven't installed signs warning drivers who get a green arrow in turn lanes on Summit Avenue to yield to pedestrians crossing Passaic Street.

The only apparent improvements at the Hackensack intersection where Carol A. Ventura, 76, was fatally injured at dusk on May 20,2021, was the repaving of Passaic -- a county owned street -- and repainting of faded or missing lines marking the four crosswalks and two turn lanes.

A second death

And more than 10 months after the death of Lillian J. Holmes, 81, who was struck by a hit-run driver and run over by a second vehicle on another county owned street, Polifly Road in Hackensack, nothing has been done to improve poor street lighting or add crosswalks and warning signs.

Hackensack City Councilman Leo Battaglia said requests for better lighting have fallen on deaf ears.

Holmes was crossing a darkened Polifly Road on the way to a CVS Pharmacy when she was struck by the two vehicles, including a black BMW X-5 whose driver fled. 

No crosswalks

There are no crosswalks or signs warning drivers of pedestrians along a 6-block stretch of 4-lane Polifly Road, despite several apartment buildings on both sides of the street and the CVS.

Michael Pagan, the public information officer for Bergen County, didn't return calls seeking comment on whether "Walk/Don't Walk" or warning signs will be installed where the two women were fatally injured.

Pagan is also a councilman in Teaneck.

Investigations

The hit-run death was investigated by the Fatal Accident Investigation Unit of the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, which apparently hasn't been able to find the driver who fled.

Hackensack police investigated the death on Passaic Street and Summit Avenue, but no charges of failing to yield to a pedestrian were filed against either driver. 

PEDESTRIANS FACE SUDDEN DEATH: There are apartment buildings and a popular CVS on Polifly Road in Hackensack, above and below, but a 6-block stretch of the 4-lane street between Essex and Lodi streets doesn't have a single crosswalk or warning signs for pedestrians or drivers. And none was added after Lillian J. Holmes, 81, who was crossing Polifly Road on the way to the CVS, died on March 4, 2021. She was knocked down by a hit-run driver and struck by a second driver, who stayed on the scene. 

READ: How 2 Hackensack women

 died crossing the street

READ: Record columnist fiddled 

as drivers got away with murder