Multi-Car Crash Driver Remembers Little of the Event

The elderly couple rescued from their car after Friday's 7:30 p.m. accident have little memory of the crash. The driver, Dorothy Koslowski, 88, and her husband, Adolf Koslowski, 89, both of Harding Drive, struck two cars before crashing into the Eden Gourmet building.

Koslowski's silver Subaru Tribeca first struck Aaron Koney's Toyota Prius. Koney, 27, of Vose Avenue, had turned right out of the Vose Avenue driveway that serves Eden Gourmet and The Avenue, according to police reports. Struck from behind, Koney's car traveled across the street, stopping in the Little Stages parking lot at the corner of Vose and Taylor Place.  Koney was treated by the Millburn-Short Hills First Aid Squad.

The Koslowskis then turned right onto South Orange Avenue, where their car collided with a black Honda Pilot driven by Charles Couch, 41, of Raymond Avenue, according to witnesses who gave information to the police.

After the Koslowskis' Subaru struck the Honda Pilot in front of Dunkin' Donuts, the Honda's driver left his car and it rolled to a stop in front of Village Diner and Coldstone Creamery on Sloan Street. At the same time, the Tribeca traveled another hundred feet and crashed into the Eden Gourmet building. The car became wedged between the building and a lightpost, trapping the Koslowskis in the car.

South Orange firefighters and South Orange Rescue Squad personnel extricated freed the couple from the Subaru using hydraulic rescue tools. Though she suffered minor bleeding from the back of her head, Dorothy Koslowski was conscious and able to walk unassisted to an ambulance.

Emergency personnel removed the car's rear door and the driver's seat to free her husband.  He was bleeding from cuts on his face, and was conscious but disoriented, according to SOFD Chief Jeff Markey.  Adolf Koslowski was carried from the car into the ambulance on a stretcher.

Both husband and wife were treated on the scene by SORS and then taken to University Hospital. When they were interviewed there, the Koslowskis told police they had little or no recollection of the crash.

Couch, driver of the Jeep, was treated on the scene for minor burns. He declined further medical attention.

The accident remains under investigation.