Retired police officer and his two daughters die in ghost accident

A retired police officer and his two children were killed in a car accident while on his way to pick up his old fiancé from work when a jeep swerved into the oncoming lane and caused a head-on collision.

Digna Melendez-Benavente waited Friday afternoon for Andrew Benavente and their two children, AJ, 13, and Madelyn 5, in Andover, NJ. But after two phone calls confirming her family was on their way, they didn’t show up.

Minutes before the fatal crash, Madelyn Face-times her mom to say, “We’re coming mommy!” Andrew then called to say, “We’re on our way, honey!”

But instead of their expected arrival, Digna got another phone call with the earth-shattering news that her family had been killed in a car accident, when Andrew’s 2001 Ford Ranger pickup was hit by Bruce Cseh, 22, who was wearing the double yellow crossed lines. get into the wrong lane.

Andrew, a retired Newark police officer, Madelyn and AJ were all killed in the crash. Cseh was freed from the scene of the accident, but later died of internal injuries.

The couple’s two children were killed in a head-on collision with their father’s pickup truck on Friday as the family was on their way to pick up their mother from work

The cause of the crash is still under investigation by local police.

Andover Township Police Chief Eric Danielson, who was one of the first to respond to the scene, said the case has only just begun, but there were several eyewitnesses who said it appeared Cseh’s Keep “crossed the oncoming lane completely.”

Authorities plan to salvage the 2021 Jeep’s “black box,” which should have collected information during and before a crash — including speed, braking, steering pattern and airbag deployment.

Danielson called the accident the worst, in terms of fatalities, he has encountered.

A devastated Digna Benavente spoke of her immense love for her family on Sunday.

My babies were precious. My husband was precious. People all over the world wish they had what I had,” she said North Jersey. com. Both of her pregnancies were hard fought after the couple battled a series of infertility related issues.

Digna and Andrew were together for 15 years in a relationship she described as “perfect.”

“There was no better father than Andrew. It was important to me to find the one who would be the best father. He was the best of the best. He took care of all of us,” she recalls.

Edwin Melendez, Digna’s brother, said Andrew was “a big teddy bear from a man with a loving heart.”

‘He always smiled. He was our rock. He didn’t deserve such an end.’

He added that his sister and brother-in-law really were a perfectly happy couple. “They always had meetings. They used every excuse to gather the family and have parties.’

Andrew Benavente, a retired police officer, was described as a loving father and partner

Friday’s deadly crash is still under investigation, but occurred when a driver of a 2021 Jeep crossed the yellow line into oncoming traffic and drove head-on into Andrew’s pickup truck

The family’s fatal accident has devastated Digna Benavente, who now has to plan three funerals

Edwin launched one GoFundMe page to help his sister with financial support for ongoing funeral costs.

“I don’t know what it will be like to bury three people at once. I love my sister. I don’t know what else to do for her. She has no one now,’ he said sadly.

Madelyn, who was due to start kindergarten in a few weeks, will be buried in the dress her mother bought her for the occasion.

The tragic crash was Sussex County’s first fatal accident in 2023 and the county’s deadliest in years. In 2022, 14 people died in car accidents in the province.

The number of fatal car accidents in New Jersey is down 21 percent by 2023, after a sharp increase in the past two years.