Driver Loses Control, Careens Through Grove Street Neighborhood

Police say a woman in a silver Volkswagon is believed to have had a medical issue that caused her to lose control of her vehicle, forcing her to crash through a stop sign and a home before coming to a rest at a residential fence on Grove Street Tuesday afternoon.

According to authorities on scene, the driver was headed west on Grove Street when she lost control of the vehicle just after 2 p.m. Her car reportedly flew onto the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street, took out a stop sign, shot through the yard of a house on the corner of Birkshire and Grove before slamming into its wooden handicap ramp and then darting between two large trees. She slammed into a metal fence, where the vehicle stopped, said Fire Chief Jim Van Goor.

It could have been a lot worse though, said Larry Bogert, who was driving behind the woman and called 911 from the scene. Bogert, of Oradell, said the woman, described as elderly with two small children in the back, "must have blacked out for a split second." He estimated she was traveling about 25 miles per hour when she first hit the sign and appeared on a collision course with the first house.

"She was headed straight for the first house, then suddenly must have woke up. The car just veered to the side. The fact that she wound up in that fence is so fortunate. I've never seen anything like that."

The woman was taken to the hospital as a result of the medical complication that is believed to have caused the crash, but was otherwise was uninjured, according to authorities. There were no injuries reported at the scene; both affected homeowners were not home at the time of the crash according to authorities. The children in the vehicle did not appear injured, multiple people reported.

"My fence is destroyed and [so] are all of the bushes," said one of the affected homeowners, who was alerted by a neighbor and rushed home. He reported that a similar incident occurred there about five years ago and said the driver "is very lucky" having missed the large trees that separate the two properties that were damaged. "Otherwise, it would have been a disaster," he said.

Bricks from the front of the home and chunks of wood from a ramp were shot across the property of the first home struck and Chief Ward, and other emergency responders were clearing debris from the scene. The Buildings Department has been requested to assess the damage of the home.

The Ridgewood Streets Department replaced the stop sign that toppled over in the crash.