Driver Hits Parked Car, Telephone Poles Early Friday Morning; Faces Four Charges

Residents on Richmond Avenue awoke to a loud crash and a flash outside their window at 3:15 early Friday morning, as a driver alleged to be under the influence ricocheted down the street, hitting a phone pole, a parked car, and a second phone pole where it came to rest.

“At first I thought it was someone trying to break into my house,” said one resident. Neighbors, who requested that their names not be used, quickly congregated on the street to investigate the crash.

“I was up and I heard the noise, so I looked out and I saw him. I guess he hit the first pole, and then he swerved trying to avoid the car, and hit the pole,” said the owner of the parked car that was struck approximately 100 feet after the first phone pole.

Purchased only the day before, the parked Dodge was a present for her son’s eighteenth birthday that Friday. “He’s been wanting a car for so long,” she told Patch.

Vladimir Panov, 27 of Ridgewood, was charged with DWI, being under the influence of a controlled substance, failure to keep right and failure to wear a seatbelt, police said late Friday morning.

Panov emerged from his damaged Honda Accord staggering, neighbors said. He attempted to shake hands with the resident of the struck vehicle, telling her “Hi, I’m Vlad,” according to neighbors.

“In boxing, they call it walking on queer street,” said one neighbor in description of the way the man was stumbling.

Initially ignoring neighbors’ requests to sit down on a curb, Panov fell backward onto the sidewalk, legs giving way.

Police who arrived on scene attempted to question the semi-responsive man, who by that point was laying down on a resident’s lawn.

Within minutes, an ambulance and EMT crew arrived on scene and could be heard saying, “He’s not breathing.” They loaded the man onto a gurney with a bag valve mask on, and transported him to Valley Hospital.

There was considerable splintering on the first phone pole, where the force of the crash tore off the Accord’s front bumper.

The parked Dodge suffered damage to its front bumper and headlight, which appeared minimal contrasted by the damage to the Accord, whose front was effectively totaled by the series of strikes.

The second phone pole incurred minor splintering in the crash.

Neighbors were mystified as to why the man was traveling on their street at all, they said. Easily mistaken for a dead end, there is apparently little reason to travel up Richmond Ave. unless dropping someone off, or going to one’s home.

“He must have had no idea where he was,” said one resident.

PSEG crews were on scene by 5:45 a.m. to inspect the damage to the electrical poles.

James Kleimann contributed to this report.