A 78-year-old woman cited for careless driving after a fatal Wendy’s crash in Bayonne pleaded not guilty this morning., June 22, 2015. In February of 2015, a BMW SUV driven by Elizabeth Garcia rammed into the front entrance of the building and struck John Ruiu, 89, of Bayonne, sending him flying into a wall.
Jody Ruiu-Geisert, the daughter of the man who died after being struck by Garcia, appeared at the hearing with her car accident attorney, Erroll J. Haythorn of Woodbridge-based law firm Gill & Chamas in Bayonne Municipal Court this morning.
After the hearing ended, Erroll Haythorn told The Jersey Journal that Ruiu’s family is “extremely disappointed by the fact that the defendant did not step up today to take responsibility.” Haythorn noted that the state will be prosecuting Garcia in the trial, and that the state is issuing subpoenas for “witnesses and for the video footage capturing how Mr. Ruiu was tragically killed due to the actions of the defendant.”
The motor vehicle violation of careless driving is usually punishable in New Jersey by two points on one’s driver’s license plus a fine. On the careless driving ticket that was issued to Garcia on Feb. 19, a police officer checked the boxes for “Accident,” “Property Damage,” “Personal Injury” and “Death/Serious Bodily Injury.”
