Here is a big reason you don't want to move to Leonia

In Manhattan today, panhandlers were working the rush-hour traffic on the Harlem River Drive ramp leading to the George Washington Bridge.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Two weeks ago, a vibrant 60-year-old restaurant owner using a downtown Leonia crosswalk was struck by a school bus and dragged 71 feet to her death.

In The Record's story on Leyla Kan of Fort Lee, Leonia Police Chief Thomas Rowe appealed to Governor Christie and the Port Authority to do something about rush-hour traffic from the turnpike that uses the town as a shortcut to the George Washington Bridge.

But what that had to do with the death of Kan was unclear in The Record's poorly reported Aug. 8 story.

No connection

In fact, it had nothing to do with her death, as a column this past Sunday revealed:

"The fatality stretched law enforcement to the breaking point, said Rowe, because only two of his department's 17 officers were on duty at the time and they were handling a domestic call" (Sunday's Road Warrior column, A-1 and A-8).

Yikes! Only two police officers were working in Leonia on a busy Thursday morning? 

Photos of Leyla Kan were part of a memorial at her Palisades Park pita-and-pizza restaurant, Picnic Cafe.

Incompetent leaders

Where are borough officials? Where is property tax money going, if not to keep residents and visitors safe?

Given all of the rush-hour traffic that inundates Leonia, shouldn't Rowe assign at least one officer to direct traffic at its main intersection, Fort Lee Road and Broad Avenue, where Kan was struck by a school bus driver who failed to yield to her?

Wouldn't Kan be alive today, if an officer was guarding the crosswalk she assumed would protect her on a beautiful, great-to-be-alive day?

Shameless apologist

Road Warrior John Cichowski, who likely is in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, quotes Leonia Borough Council President Gil Hawkins as saying:

"Austerity measures caused largely by a weak economy and  declining tax base led to the loss of six officers over the years."

And they weren't replaced? Every town in North Jersey has been hit by a "weak economy and declining tax base."

That's no excuse in Leonia or anywhere else.

Cold-blooded reporter

In his Sunday column, Cichowski couldn't have been more insensitive to Kan's death.

First, he refers to her death as "a fatal bus crash near the mayor's hardware store." Later, he calls it a "grisly bus crash." 

There was no "bus crash" in the usual sense of the phrase. How did the editors allow this fuzzy nonsense in the paper?

Cichowski never names the victim, as if she was so much road kill.

A cover-up

Cichowski's column and the Aug. 8 news story reporting Kan's death amount to a cover-up of Leonia officials' incompetence.

The original news story didn't mention the short police staffing, and gave the police chief a platform to distract attention from it by asking for state and regional help dealing with rush-hour traffic.

Reporters just published his remarks; no one at the press conference or in the Woodland Park newsroom asked Rowe what his request for help directing traffic had to do with Kan's death.

Today's paper

Readers bored with A-1 today likely flipped the page and saw an item on A-2 that basically admits the Sports staff can't spell names or correctly identify athletes in photos (A-2).

A Bergen County jury found that a cold-blooded Stephen Scharf murdered his wife by throwing her off of the Palisades in 1992.

Now, his conviction has been thrown out, but the appeals-court judges didn't attack any of the actual evidence against him, and he will be retried, if necessary.

Why is The Record giving him a platform today to discuss his "plans for life as a free man" (A-1)?

If anyone is a "Big Pussy," it's Columnist Bill Ervolino, who today second guesses the Bergen County Historical Society's 10 Legends (A-1).

Hackensack news?

Who is covering Hackensack for The Record?

Christopher Maag, who took over from Hannan Adely, is now covering NJ Transit.

Adely's name appeared under a Wednesday brief reporting action on a downtown park at Monday's City Council meeting, but she also covers education. 

Ticket prices

On the Better Living front, the $150 price (plus tax) given for a ticket to the Sunrise Senior Living Jazz Festival on Sunday conflicts with the Web site, ticketbud.com, where lower-price tickets also are available (BL-1).

Editors panic over 'exploding' trains in North Jersey

Amid a lavish display of flowers, photos of a beaming Leyla Kan, 60, the woman killed by a school bus in Leonia last week, appeared in the window of her pizza-and-pita restaurant in Palisades Park on Monday, above and below. Picnic Cafe, which was closed on Monday, is one of the few non-Korean businesses on Broad Avenue.

The bouquets turned the sidewalk fragrant. Some of the Korean-Americans who stopped to look at the memorial didn't know how Kan had died. The Record did one story on the fatal accident, which resulted in traffic summonses being issued to the school-bus driver, but no follow-ups to resolve unanswered questions.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Should I worry or is today's Page 1 account of exploding oil trains passing through neighboring Teaneck just a sensational attempt to sell The Record during a sleepy August?

As a resident of Hackensack, I'm trying to figure out whether I'm far enough away to be safe after derailment of  "aging" rail tanker cars that carry "millions" of gallons of "highly explosive crude oil" through North Jersey (A-1).

This appears to be a major piece of investigative journalism guided by Editor Martin Gottlieb.

Full story -- finally

The front of Local today fills in many of the details missing in Monday's hastily prepared story about a woman struck and dragged to her death at the Hawthorne farmers' market by a speeding pickup truck (L-1).

The victim, beautician Donna Marie Wine, 58, of Hawthorne lived near the suspect, James T. Woetzel, 48, the driver who was charged with vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of an accident on Sunday, but they didn't know each other, The Record says.

"Neither police not the county Prosecutor's Office would reveal details of the horrific incident," forcing Staff Writers Minjae Park, Andrew Wyrich and Jim Norman to wait for the next press release.

However, the reporters are sticking with the victim being dragged four blocks, even though other media accounts put the distance at a half-mile.

Robin Williams

Burned-out columnist Bill Ervolino again uses the death of a prominent entertainer to promote his own sorry ass (BL-1).

Why does this "appreciation" of Williams begin like others he's written, recapping an Ervolino interview from the dark ages, in this case 25 years ago?

You can read thousands of words about the comic genius on Page 1, the Better Living front and BL-2, and still not know how Williams died.

More questions

The cause of death was "suicide due to asphyxia" or suffocation, but does that mean Williams hung himself, put his head into the oven, was trying a weird sexual thing or killed himself in another way?

Unfortunately, you can't count on The Record for the answer, whether a death occurs as near as Leonia and Hawthorne or as far away as northern California.

Leyla Kan

In front of Picnic Cafe in Palisades Park on Monday, a woman recalled her 20-year friendship with the owner, Leyla Kan, who was killed last Thursday morning by a school bus in Leonia. 

Years ago, Kan had been severely injured in an automobile accident, and was so grateful to have survived, the friend said.

Now, the woman said, she can't believe her friend is gone. All she was doing was crossing the street.

More corrections

A correction today notes The Record can't even spell a former freeholder's name properly (A-2).

In his Sunday column, Road Warrior John Cichowski mistakenly said there are only six residential streets with direct access to Route 17 south, even though he reported previously there are seven.

Cichowski's sense of direction also is flawed in that he said a Bergen Avenue house is five blocks south of another resident, when it is, in fact, five blocks north.

Read about other flaws in the column:

Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers

Investigators left their mark where pedestrian was killed

This is the Leonia intersection and crosswalk where Leyla Kan, 60, of Fort Lee was struck by a school bus on Thursday morning, then dragged and killed. The dark, curving mark visible on the Broad Avenue pavement on Saturday was left by the vehicle's tire as Kan was dragged about 71 feet.

The yellow box marked by investigators on the Broad Avenue crosswalk is said to be where Kan was when she was hit by the school bus, which was turning left from Fort Lee Road toward Englewood. The driver didn't yield to her, police said. The Record's one story on the fatal accident didn't say whether Kan was in the crosswalk.

These markings at the end of the heavy tire skid mark may indicate where Kan's body came to rest.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The door to Picnic Cafe, the pizza-and-pita restaurant owned by Leyla Kan, was open on Saturday and I could hear people seated inside fondly remembering the woman who was killed by a school bus as she crossed the street in Leonia on Thursday morning.

A notice on the window of the Palisades Park cafe said the family of the 60-year-old Fort Lee woman will receive friends from 10 a.m. to noon Monday at McCorry Bros. Funeral Home in Cliffside Park.

Picnic Cafe is on the same street, Broad Avenue, where Kan was killed.

Despite all the unanswered questions surrounding Kan's untimely death, The Record hasn't done a follow-up nor have the editors seen fit to call for a change in the law that would hold drivers criminally responsible for pedestrian deaths.

Only summonses

Esperanza Jaramillo, 54, the bus driver, received summonses for careless driving, failure to yield to a pedestrian who had the right of way and driving a vehicle with badly worn tires.

The poorly reported and edited story on Thursday noted Kan "was struck by the protruding passenger compartment of the minibus behind the door, apparently unseen by Jaramillo."

"Apparently unseen" was the best The Record could do to explain how the turning driver could hit a pedestrian in the crosswalk on Broad Avenue in Leonia, drag the victim 71 feet and not realize it.

Today's paper

The Record's Sunday edition today is one of the thinnest and most disappointing in recent memory.

The main element on Page 1 is a silly report by Staff Writer Christopher Maag on Richard "I Am Not a Crook" Nixon's life in North Jersey after he resigned the presidency in disgrace 40 years ago Saturday (A-1).

In another front-page story, The Record is finally getting around to discussing the impact of a shortage of judges on people involved in divorces and other cases in Bergen County (A-1).

I guess from the Woodland Park newsroom, Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza can't see all of the crime victims waiting for justice in Hackensack.

Road litter

On the Local front, the Road Warrior column continues to harp on the unprotected homes along Route 17 south where a Waldwick police radar officer was killed by a tractor-trailer on July 17 (L-1).

For his last Road Warrior column, Staff Writer John Cichowski made a rare trip to the antiquated Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan -- where North Jersey commuters face long delays in getting home -- and looked for the most irrelevant story he could find among the gridlocked buses.

In the process, Cichowski put his foot in his mouth once again, according to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

"In his Thursday column, the Road Warrior takes on the simplest of tasks and messes it up with his inept reporting about the statue of Ralph Kramden, the Jackie Gleason bus driver from 'The Honeymooners' TV series, in front of the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and related mass transit issues.

"Road Warrior reports about the virtue of a bus driver calling riders on his cellphone to alert them that their bus was running late, and likened the virtue of this bus driver to Ralph Kramden.

"However, this virtue is contradicted by the facts, which the Road Warrior has frequently addressed in his columns, that the bus driver’s use of a cellphone, hand-held or hands free, greatly increases the risk of an accident and would endanger passengers. It also potentially violates New Jersey cellphone law if the driver is using a hand-held cellphone.

"As Ralph Kramden would frequently exclaim when faced with implausible distortions and sadly worthless statements: 'Har! Har! Hardy! Har! Har!'"

Cichowski also got the bus terminal's age wrong -- again -- and mistakenly reported that $800 million had been proposed to "refurbish" the building when, in fact, the money had been earmarked for a new bus parking garage in the city.

For a full report on the confused Cichowski's continuing ineptitude, see:  

Where am I and how do I get home?

Vegetable high

Readers are staring in disbelief at an Elisa Ung column on the Better Living front about a Sussex County farm, glorious vegetables and the Bergen County chefs who praise and use them in their kitchens (BL-1).

In her many years of food writing for The Record, Ung has shunned salads and become known as the queen of meat and desserts -- and just about any other artery clogging food.

Drivers should be charged with crime in pedestrian deaths

During construction to remove the Little Ferry Circle, only one left-turn lane is provided, above. But in a typical Jersey gambit, drivers turn left from two lanes, causing congestion and delays, then merge into a single lane before crossing the Route 46 bridge over the Hackensack River, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Will the schoolbus driver who failed to yield to pedestrian Leyla Kan in Leonia -- then struck, dragged and killed her -- join so many others in getting away with murder?

Police gave bus driver Esperanza Jaramillo, 54, of Tenafly summonses for careless driving and failure to yield to a pedestrian on Thursday morning, The Record reported on Friday. 

But Leonia police said Jaramillo could not be charged with a crime, because there was no evidence she was using her cellphone before she struck Kan, 60, owner of a Turkish restaurant in Palisades Park.

Final word?

I'm shocked there is no follow up in today's paper. And I hope the Bergen County prosecutor's fatal accident unit challenges the reasoning of Leonia police not to charge Jaramillo with a crime.

When is the Woodland Park daily's editorial board going to call on the state Legislature to change the law to make drivers criminally responsible for killing pedestrians, especially if they are in the crosswalk?

How many times in recent decades have drivers literally gotten away with murder by merely saying they "didn't see" the pedestrian?

'Didn't see' excuse

Friday's L-1 story reports the police version that "Kan was struck [as she crossed the street] by the protruding passenger compartment of the minibus behind the door, apparently unseen by Jaramillo" (Friday's L-1).

"[Police Chief Thomas Rowe] said that as witnesses watched in horror and screamed and honked their horns to get Jaramillo's attention, the bus dragged Kan 71 feet along the street before it came to a stop."

There was no reporting on why the school bus driver didn't know that she had struck Kan or that she dragged her 71 feet, nor does The Record say whether the woman was in the crosswalk. 

A news radio report said the victim's blood stained the pavement.

Lazy editors

The Kan story is another example of the slipshod editing of fatal-accident stories by head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza.

These lazy editors are so desperate to fill their pages they often blow up photos as big as possible, as they did on Friday's L-3 with a totaled Porsche 911.

A story reports Stuart Liberman, 55, allegedly was drunk when he crashed into the back of a truck on the George Washington Bridge after midnight Thursday, breaking a thigh bone. 

Big deal.

Rouse leaves

Karen Rouse, a transportation reporter who covered NJ Transit for about seven years, is now a "politics reporter" at WNYC-FM, New York and New Jersey Public Radio, according to her Twitter page.

Rouse's investigative reports for The Record on Superstorm Sandy damage to NJ Transit locomotives and rail cars in 2012 were featured prominently on WNYC-FM.

Her shoes are now being filled by Staff Writer Christopher Maag, the onetime Hackensack reporter who last Sunday wrote about delays at the antiquated Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan.

Today, Maag reports on what caused "the big mess" after the Super Toilet Bowl six months ago, when 20,000 fans were delayed boarding NJ Transit trains (A-1).

Who cares? 

What a waste of space, as commuters continue to scramble for rush-hour seats on trains and buses into Manhattan every weekday morning, and face the possibility enormous delays leaving the bus terminal to go home won't be eased for years.

Meanwhile, former Hackensack reporter Hannan Adely's byline appears today on a story reporting an employee's lawsuit against the city (L-2).

More Christie B.S.

Editors and reporters have adopted Governor Christie's portrayal of himself as a compromiser so wholeheartedly they ignore all evidence to the contrary.

That must be the explanation for how The Record's crack Trenton staff missed the GOP bully's 11 vetoes on Aug. 1 (A-1). 

How embarrassing.

Has Christie used the veto more times than any other governor before him? Don't hold your breath for an answer in The Record. 

Voters don't care

The upbeat story on door-to-door campaigning by freeholder candidates papers over the huge problem of voter apathy (L-1).

In local elections especially, candidates for council and board of education often are elected by a fraction of registered voters.

In last November's gubernatorial election, that bum Christie won a second term, but turnout was the lowest in history for a statewide contest.

So, the freeholder candidates' strategy of targeting residents "with a history of voting regularly" simply doesn't make sense.