Crime & Safety

Hasbrouck Heights Man Charged In Fatal Route 208 Crash

Passenger, 24, from North Haledon, killed in single car accident.

A 22-year-old Hasbrouck Heights man was charged with vehicular homicide Thursday after his passenger died in an early morning drunk driving crash on Route 208, authorities said.

Lukisz Skibicki was driving a 2002 Ford Taurus northbound on the highway when he failed to negotiate a bend in the road and crashed into a tree, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said in a news release.

His passenger, George Kantakis, 24, of North Haledon, was pronounced dead at 2:40am by a doctor from Valley Hospital in Ridgewood. Skibicki suffered a fractured skull and internal injuries, Molinelli said, and remains hospitalized at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson.

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Skibicki has been charged with one count of second degree vehicular homicide, and was issued motor vehicle summonses for DWI and reckless driving.

The accident occurred near the Fair Lawn Avenue exit.

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Kantakis was born in Ridgewood and grew up in North Haledon. He was a graduate of The Academy of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Franklin Lakes and Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, according to his obituary on ObitsforLife.com. He attended Bergen Community College. 

Kantakis is survived by his parents Patricia Spinnler of North Haledon and George Kantakis of Franklin Lakes; his grandparents, Robert and Theresa Spinnler of Wyckoff; and sister Theresa Ann Kantakis and John David Kantakis, according to his obituary.

He would have celebrated his twenty-fifth birthday next month.


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