Officer Credited With Saving Woman’s Life After Teaneck Crash

Doctors are crediting a Bergen County police officer with saving a driver’s life after he climbed through a wrecked sedan to apply first aid in a Route 4 crash Sunday afternoon, authorities said Monday.   

Officer Les Lorenc, of the county’s K-9 unit, was investigating an unrelated hit-and-run crash on Route 4 east around noon, near Webster Avenue, when a 1999 Mercury Sable drove onto the shoulder, narrowly missed his patrol car and slammed into a Bergen Brookside flatbed tow truck, police said.

The force of the crash left the Sable pinned under the flatbed, sliced off the car’s roof and trapped two women in the sedan, county police said. Lorenc climbed over the truck, through the car’s smashed windshield and applied “quick clot” to slow the bleeding of the seriously injured driver.

Teaneck and Englewood firefighters freed the two women from the wreck, authorities said. The Teaneck Volunteer Ambulance Corps brought the pair to Hackensack University Medical Center.

“The ER doctor stated that if it weren’t for PO Lorenc’s quick and decisive life saving actions, the driver could have possibly sustained fatal injuries at the scene,” Bergen County Police Lt. Robert Espinosa said in a statement.

The passenger from the Sable and tow truck driver were treated for minor injuries, he said. Police were continuing to investigate the cause of the crash.

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