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Three dead in two-car accident in Hudson
Probers cite third vehicle and possibility of a race
Monday, January 07, 2008
BY CLAIRE HEININGER AND SULEMAN DIN
Star-Ledger Staff

Two Jersey City teenagers and a 79-year-old Woodbridge woman were killed in a horrific two-car accident in Hudson County yesterday, and police are investigating whether drag racing may be to blame, authorities said.

The crash occurred when a Honda Accord occupied by the 18- and 19-year-old men, who knew one another from the Coptic church, crossed the double-yellow line of a North Bergen road, striking a Chevrolet Blazer with a Woodbridge mother and daughter inside, police said. The Accord was exceeding the road's 25-mph speed limit, and police are investigating whether it was drag racing with a third vehicle that was not involved in the wreck, North Bergen police officer Lou Stitzer said last night.

There were no indications that alcohol or drugs were a factor in the crash, Stitzer said.

"It's just an unfortunate, terrible, horrific accident," he said.

Killed instantly were George Ghebrial, 19, Mena Shafek, 18, and Maria Layton, 79, who was in the Blazer's passenger seat, police said. Her 54-year-old daughter, Doris Etchegaray, was taken to Jersey City Medical Center, where she was undergoing surgery for non-life-threatening injuries last night, authorities said.

Both recent immigrants from Egypt -- Ghebrial had been in Jersey City for two years, Shafek for one -- the teens lived within a block of each other and grew close as deacons at the Coptic Orthodox Church of Saint Mark's, where parishioners learned of the tragedy last night as they filled the halls for Christmas Eve services. The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas today.

"(Ghebrial) was a good deacon. He was very good singer," said Khalid Sadiq, the Sunday school teacher at the church. "He had a very good voice. He was very funny. He was very active."

Ghebrial had graduated from William L. Dickinson High School in June, worked as a security officer and was dreaming of college. On his MySpace page, he wrote that he missed friends in Egypt and wanted to see Greece. As a goal for the coming year, he wrote, "to find a real love."

Shafek, who had completed high school in Cairo, had enrolled in ESL classes at Hudson County College and worked as a waiter alongside his father at a North Bergen restaurant.

"He was well-behaved. Everybody loved him," said Ishraf Soliman, a co-worker who stood with a group of friends outside Shafek's home last night, smoking cigarettes and grasping for more details of the crash.

Authorities, too, were unsure last night why the Accord veered into the oncoming lane of traffic, and had interviewed the occupants of the third car, which "might've been a contributing factor" to Ghebrial's car's actions, Stitzer said. He said police believe drag racing "could be a possibility."

Other specifics of the accident remained unclear, including what brought the victims together on a long stretch of Secaucus Road that runs through three municipalities: Jersey City, Secaucus and North Bergen.

Knicknacks found strewn inside the women's car indicated the pair, who lived in the Fords section of Woodbridge, had been on a flea market trip, which was a "hobby of theirs," Stitzer said.

It is unknown why the Jersey City teens were on the road, Stitzer said, but friends said they were shopping.

"This is a heavy loss," he said. "It's a horrible thing."