By Nicolas Fernandes and Tim Hawk
Source nj.com
The aftermath of what happened Saturday night in Wildwood — at least two were killed following a pop-up car rally in Wildwood — was visible in the city on Sunday.
Tire tracks, perhaps from either speeding or skidding vehicles, were visible at multiple intersections.
New Jersey State Police troopers, Wildwood police officers, and officers from the Cape May Sheriff’s Office were patrolling the neighborhood. Occasionally, some cars — possibly from the prior night’s gathering — were being pulled over.
Anthony Bucolo, owner of the Fountain Motel on Atlantic Avenue — where two people were killed in a multi-car crash — said the police came to the motel to question two people who were staying there and to look at his surveillance camera.
“All it really showed was one of the cars hitting the liquor store,” he said.
Gerald J. White, 37, of Pittsburgh, Pa. is facing charges in relation to two deaths he’s accused of causing while driving his car. Police say he crashed into a Honda Civic, killing its passenger, Timothy Ogden, 34, of Clayton and killing a pedestrian Lindsay Weakland, 18, of Carlisle, Pa.
Bucolo was critical of the drivers who gathered on Saturday.
“These guys invaded and they wound up taking over the island. They threw them out of Ocean City, Maryland, and then they invaded this place. The cops knew they were coming, but they didn’t think there would be that many people.”
Video from throughout the night shows an escalating scene. During daylight hours, cars cruised along main roads like Rio Grande Avenue and Atlantic Avenue as crowds calmly gathered on the sidewalks, watching the cars rev their engines, sending smoke into the air. But as the night wore on, huge crowds spilled into the streets, shouting and recording as drivers did burnouts and donuts through intersections, and blocked police trying to break up the scene.
Multiple graphic videos from Saturday night also depict a second accident on Rio Grande Avenue. They show a car taking off from a standstill in the far right lane at an intersection and another car in the lane next to it clipping it, causing it to lose control and veer into a golf-cart-style vehicle on the opposite side of the road. At least one passenger from the golf cart is seen unresponsive in the road.
The Wildwood commissioners put out a statement after midnight saying they were “grossly outmanned” and were calling in for additional help from New Jersey State Police and surrounding local departments.
Olivia Galing of Rahway witnessed the fatal crash in front of the Cork and Bottle liquor store on Atlantic Avenue and said police had offers stationed on what seemed like every block. She overheard how White had allegedly hit another car’s taillight and fled from police before causing the accident. She said the cops would clear the streets and then leave and the people would come right back. Eventually they put up barricades along Atlantic, she said.
““It was nuts, kids trying to do burnouts and stuff like that,” she said. “But there were so many people lined up on the side of the road. Kids were standing in the middle of the street on the yellow lines recording things. So it was gonna happen somebody was gonna get hurt.”
Ivaylo Nikolov, manager at McDonald’s on West Rio Grande Avenue, was working during the day Saturday and left at 4:30 pm.
He did not witness the crash, but during his shift, he said he saw cars racing outside. Many of the vehicles were parked in the McDonald’s parking lot, with some who had been inside the cars exiting and dancing on the roofs. Some women were flashing their breasts, he said.
Nikolov said he told all of his employees to stay inside and put posters up on the doors, notifying the racers that they were not allowed to come inside to loiter.
”They were all over the place during the day, dancing on the hoods of cars. It was crazy. They were racing up and down the street. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was like that movie, the ‘Fast and the Furious,’” Nikolov said, referring to the 2001 movie that centered on street racing and turned in a multi-film franchise.
A worker at one motel, in describing the harrowing scene from Saturday night, recounted even pouring gasoline onto the street. She said she had a difficult time trying to drive away from work around 11 p.m., due to the streets being crowded with people.
Diane Fly, a tourist staying at the Fountain Motel, said she heard a crash, but didn’t see what happened.
“We’ve been coming down here forever. We’ve never experienced anything like this,” Fly said.
Asked about the police response, Fly said, “They did what they could, but when there’s thousands of people it’s hard for them to control it.”
“I’m still coming here. I’m just hoping this never happens again,” Fly added.
A liquor store employee at the scene of the fatal crash at Atlantic and Burk avenues described seeing a car going at least 80 mph and striking another vehicle. His store showed apparent signs of one accident, with light damage and pieces of a car’s windshield visible near the construction of the new addition in the back of the store.
Wildwood Mayor Pete Byron told NJ Advance Media midday Sunday that it had been a “pretty hectic last 24, 48 hours” and that there were additional injuries involving a golf cart on Rio Grande Avenue that was struck by one of the H20i vehicles.
Multiple videos taken at different angles on Rio Grande Avenue show a car speeding through an intersection before crashing into another vehicle and then losing control and hitting a low-speed vehicle, similar to a golf cart, knocking some of its passengers from the vehicle.
Debbie Davis, who stays in an apartment on Atlantic Avenue during the summer and on weekends, also heard what sounded like a crash.
“I heard it and I thought ‘oh my gosh, someone must have gotten hit,’” Davis said.
“The Wildwood Police did an excellent job on Friday. They blocked off the streets around 11 (p.m.) and made their presence known so that it would calm down and we were just waiting for the same thing to happen Saturday night, but unfortunately this had happened already,” Davis said.
Saturday’s crowd wasn’t the first. Hundreds of people also showed up at Lowe’s parking lot in Middle Township on Friday night. Mayor Tim Donahue said in a statement that after that gathering, the township was prepared on Saturday by putting police at key parking lots in the 72-square-mile town until 4 a.m. However, it’s unclear if any of the crowds appeared in Middle Township on Saturday.
In addition to the New Jersey State Police and police from Wildwood’s three departments, units from Cape May, Atlantic City and Ocean City responded to calls Saturday night, authorities said.
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