Off-duty patrolman was on way to work when he saw a car and truck collide on Route 130.
By: Lacey Korevec
Smoke was all Bordentown resident and Cranbury Patrol Officer Guiseppe DeChiara saw as he looked out into the distance.
He had just pulled one injured man out of an overturned car and knew there was another wrecked vehicle up ahead. Without thinking twice, he put the man down and made his way toward the burning car.
"I honestly wasn’t thinking," he recalled Tuesday afternoon. "It was like I was working. You see something and you run."
It wasn’t until later that he realized his quick reaction would save the life of a 1-year-old child and his father.
Tuesday started pretty typically for Officer DeChiara. He was on his way to headquarters to report for duty at approximately 6 a.m. He was traveling south on Route 130 in East Windsor when he had stopped for a red light at Hankins Road. That’s when he realized something was wrong.
"I looked to my right, which was Conover Road and Route 130 north, and there was a white Ford F350 lying on (its) driver-side," he said. "It was flipped. And I put my car in park, jumped out of my vehicle, ran over to the driver, who was inside the vehicle, jumped up on the truck and helped him out."
As Officer DeChiara was pulling the man, Shawn Goodwin, 47, of Kendall Park, out of his pickup truck, he asked him what happened and was told there was another vehicle up ahead. He ran about 50 yards to a small, green Nissan Sentra that had smoke escaping from its hood.
"It had severe front-end crush," he said of the smoking vehicle. "Everything was mashed inward and the hood of the front compartment was pitched upward like a V. The truck was crossing the highway, so it was a T-bone strike."
According to East Windsor police, the accident, which occurred at 6:09 a.m., took place when Mr. Goodwin failed to yield when making a left from Route 130 north onto Conover Road. The truck then hit the Nissan Sentra, which was being driven by James Stevens, 34, of Burlington.
Police said the truck spun and flipped over, while Mr. Stevens’ vehicle spun and caught fire.
When Officer DeChiara approached the smoking Nissan, he saw that Mr. Stevens had head injuries and was bleeding. Though he said his first instinct was not to move the man in case of a spinal cord injury, flames coming from the car’s crushed hood prompted him to move quickly.
"I started to pull him out and he was very confused," he said. "He started screaming he had his baby in the back seat. So, I pulled (Mr. Stevens) out (and) dropped him where he was."
Officer DeChiara, who is also a child passenger safety technician, said he climbed into the back of the smoke-filled car, where he quickly released the car seat and pulled it out with the baby, Joshua Stevens, still strapped in. He carried the child in the safety seat in one arm and dragged Mr. Stevens to a safe spot, away from the flames, where he was able to call for help.
He knew right away that Mr. Stevens was injured, but said that both he and the baby were breathing.
"I laid him on the ground and told him not to move," Officer DeChiara said. "I told him I had his kid and the kid was OK and within five minutes the ambulances came."
Though an East Windsor police officer tried to put the flames out with a fire extinguisher, the East Windsor Fire Department was eventually called to the scene to help, Officer DeChiara said. He said the situation could have been a lot worse.
"It caught on fire," he said. "It didn’t explode or anything, so I honestly don’t know what might have happened. I was very happy to be driving by at that time and happy to help out. I wish the victims, as well as the other driver, a speedy recovery. Had the vehicle exploded or something, we’d be telling a different story."
The East Windsor Police Department, East Windsor Fire Company, MONOC Basic Life Support and Capital Health Systems at Fuld paramedics responded to the scene.
Mr. Stevens, the child and Mr. Goodwin were transported to Capital Health Systems at Fuld where Mr. Stevens was treated for a concussion and a broken wrist, police said. Mr. Goodwin was charged with failure to yield while turning, police said.
The northbound Lanes of Route 130 were closed for approximately 90 minutes. The southbound lanes also were closed for a short time.
Cranbury Police Chief Jay Hansen said Tuesday he is extremely proud to have Officer DeChiara in his department.
Officer DeChiara, 35, has been a Cranbury police officer for nine years.
"He’s a fine officer and deserves all of these accolades," Chief Hansen said. "However, he’d be the first to say it was nothing that anybody else wouldn’t have done."

