New Year's Eve accident in Nutley only caused minor injuries, officials said.
NUTLEY -- A 71-year-old Hamburg man escaped with only minor injuries after his car plowed through a parking barrier and fence, and plummeted 10 feet into a New Jersey river on New Year's Eve, police announced.
The man said that his foot may have slipped off of the brake of his Honda CRV at about 10:15 a.m. Thursday while he was driving at the intersection of Franklin Avenue and Harrison Street, Nutley police said in a release.
The car jumped a cement parking barrier, drove through a five-foot-tall fence, flipped upside down, and fell more than 10 feet into the Third River, police said. People and business owners near the crash jumped in the waist-deep water to help the man out of the car, authorities said.
Emergency responders at the scene in Nutley. (Courtesy Nutley Police)The man was treated by emergency responders for minor injuries, police said. The car was removed from the river by a crane, they said.
"This man is lucky he wasn't submerged or injured more than he was," Mayor and Police Director Alphonse Petracco said in a release.
"The plunge upside down was enough to seriously hurt an occupant, let alone becoming trapped under water."
Nutley officials also commended emergency responders and passersby who helped the man after the accident.
Jessica Mazzola may be reached at jmazzola@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessMazzola. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
