4 senior women rescued after car plunges into pond in parking snafu

MONROE (Middlesex County) — A group of four senior women was rescued from their sinking car, after a parking mishap landed them in a viewing pond on Friday afternoon, police said.

Rochelle Sackaroff, 78, was driving a 2018 BMW 530I with three passengers just before 12:30 p.m when she began to pull into a handicap parking spot at the Regency Adult Community Clubhouse. The car accelerated, drove over the curb and across landscape rocks and into the water, police said.

Monroe Township Police officers arrived within minutes and entered the pond in their uniforms, where they tied a rope to the vehicle and pulled it into a shallow part of the pond, police said.

Fire Department and First Aid Squad members also responded and safely removed Sackaroff along with Lila Holhauser, 80, Lydia Weintraub, 76, and Barbara Bigman, 78, from the vehicle before it filled up with water.

No one was hurt in the crash, police said, though Holhauser, the front-seat passenger, asked to be taken to the hospital for evaluation as she was shaken up.

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