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LEFT: Jeffrey Cohen (courtesy BCPO), Marcus Ruta (FACEBOOK PHOTO)
The state Motor Vehicle Commission had restricted Cohen from driving with two non-family members in his car after his driver’s license was temporarily suspended for speeding and driving without a license.
The three had been snowboarding at Campgaw Mountain in Mahwah on Jan. 24. On the way home, Cohen plowed the vehicle into the train around 8:30 p.m.
All of the traffic-safety warning equipment at the Pulis Avenue railroad crossing was working, authorities said. Occupants waiting to cross in other cars could only watch helplessly.
Jeep Cherokee’s front seat passenger, 20-year-old Marcus Ruta, was pronounced dead at the scene. Rear-seat passenger Josephn Belasco, 18, suffered serious injuries.
Ruta was a well-known Hawthorne High School graduate who played football and wrestled.
The crash raised several questions about the crossing on Pulis Avenue, near its intersection with
Susquehanna Avenue, but none about what condition Cohen might have been in.
After a two-and-a-half-month probe, charges were advised by Molinelli’s Fatal Accident Investigation Unit (FAIU) and Franklin Lakes police, Molinelli said.
“(It) was determined that Jeffrey Cohen drove the Jeep Cherokee directly into the engine of a New York Susquehanna and Western Railroad train which was in the crossing on Pulis Avenue,” the prosecutor said.
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According to several witnesses, Cohen “failed to respond to warning lights, klaxons and horns, and the presence of the train itself before the collision,” he added.
A blood sample was taken and the recently returned results showed that Cohen was “under the influence and driving while impaired by the use of marijuana at the time of the collision,” Molinelli said.
Because the crossing is within 1,000 feet of the Franklin Avenue Middle School, at 755 Franklin Avenue, state law called for charging Cohen with first-degree vehicular homicide.
Additional charges include assault by auto, driving under the influence of drugs and a few traffic violations.
Cohen, accompanied by his attorney, turned himself in today at the Franklin Lakes Police Department.
He was released on $150,000 bail following an arraignment today in Franklin Lakes Municipal Court.
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