Elderly woman rescued after vehicle plunges into river at car wash

A River Edge woman whose car got soaked twice on Sunday, in a New Jersey car wash and in the Hackensack River, suffered minor injuries after the car left the car wash and plunged into the river. The woman, who was not immediately identified, apparently hit the wrong pedal and she and her car ended up in the river, police said. She was rescued by a car wash employee and a customer and treated at Hackensack University Medical Center.


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“I thought about my own mother,” said John Goez, 40, of Teaneck, an employee at the Spotless Auto Laundry who jumped into the river and, with the customer, rescued the driver, whom he described as an elderly woman. “She was scared, crying,” Goez said of the trapped driver. The car was almost underwater when Goez and the customer, Jay Orsino of River Edge, went into action. “I kept telling her, ‘Don’t worry, we’re going to get you out of here,’ ” Goez said.

“We couldn’t open the door because of the water pressure,” Goez said. “Thank God, the window was half open. We got her through the window.” Once on land, the dazed woman said nothing to Goez. “She was scared,” Goez said. Goez, who has been working at the car wash for one year, said he didn’t think he did anything extraordinary. “I’m no hero,” Goez said. The incident occurred at around 3:30 p.m. Police called city firefighters about a car in the water at East Anderson and River streets, said Lt. Justin Derevyanik of the Hackensack Fire Department.



The car had just exited the Spotless Auto Laundry on East Anderson Street when the car struck a kerb and plunged into the nearby river, Derevyanik said. The woman was pulled from the car just before police and firefighters arrived. Firefighters launched a boat to check the vehicle for other occupants, found none and then secured the car by tying it to the shore line so it could be towed from the river. They then helped a tow truck crew retrieve the car.