Ridgefield, CT : 20-year-old Fort Lee man died when car crashes into building on Thursday July 24th 2014

A 20-year-old former Fort Lee scholastic baseball player, who was out with two of his former high school classmates in the early morning hours Thursday, died from injuries sustained when the car in which he was a passenger struck a building in Ridgefield after swerving across the road, authorities said.

The two other men in the car, also 20 years old and former Fort Lee High School athletes, were seriously injured after the driver lost control of his 2014 Honda Civic and swerved right onto the sidewalk on Broad Avenue, striking two bus stop signs before swerving left across the roadway and hitting a building, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said in a news release.

Miles Reme, who was in the passenger seat, was pronounced dead at Hackensack University Medical Center a little more than one hour after the accident, which occurred at 1:30 a.m., Molinelli said.

The driver, Tamer Ammar, a former high school football player, was in “very serious condition” at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Paterson on Thursday while the other passenger, James Racanelli, a former wrestler, was in serious condition at Hackensack University Medical Center, Molinelli said.

Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich said that he had coached Reme in Little League and that the accident was a personal blow to a community where many of the residents know the young men and their families. He said he ordered all flags in the borough to be flown at half staff Thursday.

“These were typical, good, decent kids who were home for the summer, enjoying their summer and doing what kids do,” Sokolich said.

Authorities did not say whether they had determined a cause of the accident, but said they were examining whether speed was a factor. Molinelli made a point of saying the car, which had been traveling north on Broad Avenue, went about 1,400 feet after it hit the bus stop signs before striking a building that houses a CPA firm at the corner of Edgewater Road.

Ammar, listed as a senior linebacker on the 2011-12 Fort Lee football team, had received a summons on May 22, 2012, for driving under the influence in Fairview, leading to his license being suspended for seven months last year, according to state Motor Vehicle Commission records. Three months earlier, records show, Ammar was charged with reckless driving in Virginia.

He was arrested in Fairfield, Conn. last summer for allegedly distributing Xanax and again in Fort Lee on Nov. 5 for allegedly distributing marijuana, according to police and jail records. Ammar’s family could not be reached for comment Thursday night.

Reme was remembered Thursday as an athletic, outgoing young man who loved to crack jokes. George Tsoullis, 17, said he had a business class with Reme three years ago and that “the majority of the class was friendly with him.” Elmar Ebrahim, 16, who had a gym class with Reme, recalled that he was “was really good at sports”

At Reme’s house on Palisade Avenue, a man who identified himself as a friend said the family was too distraught to talk, and declined to comment. People who knew Reme said he had been attending Syracuse University. Racanelli is a student at the University of Chicago, according to his LinkedIn page.

Fort Lee school officials would not respond to questions about the three former students on Thursday, said the school’s athletic director, Michael Raftery.

Source :
Fort Lee man, 20, killed when car crashes into building in Ridgefield