The Princeton Packet
March 25, 1986
Car crash kills Montgomery woman
By Mary Otto
Staff Writer
MONTGOMERY — A Monday morning car accident claimed the life of a 34-year-old township woman.
Another victim, a Neshanic Station woman whose vital signs had ceased, was revived by a Montgomery First Aid Squad member. Three passengers of the two vehicles suffered injuries in the accident.
Judith S. Ambrose of Willow Run Lane in Belle Mead was listed as dead on arrival at Princeton Medical Center after her station wagon collided with a van driven by Irena Wolinski, 40, of Neshanic Station.
Though Mrs. Wolinski was “very close to being decapitated” in the accident, rescue squad member Paul Messineo restored her vital signs through the use of cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, Lt. Embrey said. “Now hospital experts expect she’ll survive,” he added. She is being treated at the Princeton Medical Center for severe trauma to her lower jaw and neck.
Police say that at 10:59 a.m. Mrs. Ambrose’s eastbound car crossed the double yellow line on a curve of Route 518 about one-tenth of a mile from the Spring Hill Road intersection, striking Mrs. Wolinski’s westbound van head-on.
Each vehicle was probably traveling the 50 mph speed limit at the time, according to Montgomery Police Lt. Larry Embrey, who said “this would have given the vehicles a closing speed of 100 miles per hour.”
Both women were trapped in their vehicles for an hour. They were finally freed by the Hopewell Fire Department’s Jaws of Life tool. Upon extrication, Mrs. Ambrose exhibited no signs of life, Lt. Embrey said.
Mrs. Ambrose’s 18-month-old child, who was secured in a child’s seat in her car’s rear scat, suffered contusions, minor lacerations, and a broken ankle.
Two passengers in Mrs. Wolinski’s van were also hospitalized. They were Mrs. Wolinski’s husband, Walter, 49, who suffered multiple lacerations and contusions, and Elizabeth Ksiezopolski, 29, who suffered a dislocated hip. Police have no address for Ms. Ksiezopolski.
Mrs. Ambrose was the wife of Robert S. Ambrose, a chiropractor with a practice in Rocky Hill.
In addition to the Montgomery Rescue Squad and the Hopewell Fire Department and ambulance, the Trenton lifemobile (Mercer County’s Mobile Intensive Care Unit), and the Somerset Mobile Intensive Care Unit.
Lt. Embrey said that at the time of the accident, police contacted the West Windsor paramedics but were told they were in Freehold.
“We were advised that the next available paramedics were in Trenton, ” he said.
He said nearly a half-hour passed before paramedics with the Trenton Lifemobile reported to the scene. The Somerset lifemobile arrived after the Trenton unit.
The regular shift of the Montgomery Rescue Squad was attending to five victims of an almost simultaneous accident on Route 206 at the time the call went out on the Route 518 accident, Lt. Embrey said. There were no serious injuries in the Route 206 accident.
A hastily mustered backup squad answered the call to the Route 518 accident.