In four 911 calls exclusively obtained by Hudson County View, callers sound shocked and dismayed moments after seeing a fatal North Bergen car crash that took the lives of two teens earlier this month.
[fve]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OpP-79Brx0&feature=youtu.be[/fve]
In the first call, made by a man who identified himself as “Saul,” was obviously stunned when he saw the carnage left behind by the fatal crash on the evening of Saturday, March 5th.
“What the [expletive], man?,” he says moments after dialing 911, right before saying something in Spanish. ” … I was coming and I just saw the car hit him and I was like ‘whoa what the [expletive].’ Holy [expletive]. I was at the light, I step on the gas, and I just see this thing: voom.”
Saul goes on to tell the 911 operator that there is a big accident on 27th Street and John F. Kennedy Boulevard that has left one man “dead on the street,” later clarifying that the body is laying on a lawn in front of a building.
The operator mentions that “we’ve gotten several calls on this,” to which Saul responds “yea … this guy’s thrown here on the floor, man. It’s really bad.”
“Oh my God, there’s another guy here. There’s someone else. Two dead bodies,” he says prior to being connected to emergency services.
There are three other phone calls that Hudson County View obtained through an Open Public Records Act request: one where the caller is barely audible, another where the caller and the 911 operator appear to be having issues with the connection and a final call that says the driver of the vehicle needs help being extricated.
At a press conference at North Bergen Township Hall on Monday, March 7th, law enforcement officials revealed that the driver, Eric Patterson, 23, of Jersey City, had been charged with two counts of death by auto – among many other charges – and was likely going nearly triple the speed limit when his car jumped the curb.
Bryan Rodriguez, 17, of Union City and Noel Herrera, 16, of Cliffside Park (and formerly of Union City) were killed in the accident, while Manuel Sanchez, 16, of Union City, was badly injured.
Hours after the press conference, hundreds of friends and family members came together to bid farewell to Rodriguez and Herrera near Union City High School.
Then, on March 11th, a judge doubled Patterson’s bail to $2 million after a toxicology report revealed that he was on PCP when the accident occurred.
The four 911 calls, unedited, can be heard here. Please note that the first call contains explicit language.
