Pair credited with rescue at sea
Published: June 10, 2005
More than 40 years of first-aid training and boating safety helped two Colonia friends save the lives of two boaters involved in a marine accident Wednesday night.
Coast Guard Auxiliary members and Colonia neighbors George Reilly, 62, and Salvatore Ruggiero, 50, were on a patrol shortly after 8 p.m. in the Raritan Bay when they received the Mayday calls for a boat struck by a barge with one person in the water and another who had been pulled from the water but was in respiratory arrest, Ruggiero said.
The accident occurred near the mouth of Arthur Kill where it meets Raritan Bay at a spot known as Wards Point, about 1 mile south of the Outerbridge Crossing
linking New Jersey and Staten Island, N.Y., the Coast Guard said.
The victims, Michael Yatsko and his uncle, Richard Yatsko, were in a 24-foot boat that was anchored in the water at the time of the collision, officials said.
Coast Guard officials were unsure what the Yatskos were doing at the time of the crash.
When Ruggiero and Reilly pulled up to the scene, Ruggiero said he saw a capsized recreation boat under the bow of the barge.
“When we arrived, there was one victim in the water with a life ring around him and pointing to his friend in the boat at the center console,” Ruggiero said. There were four young men on the boat attempting to assist the victim.
A sergeant with the Harrison Police Department pulled Richard Yatsko out of the water. “He got the guy out of the water; had it been another minute or two, I would not have been as successful resuscitating the man,” Ruggiero said.
Reilly, who was at the helm of Ruggiero’s 24-foot cabin cruiser, said they took the victims to a dock in Perth Amboy where they were picked up by the Perth Amboy First Aid and transported to area hospitals.
“I’ve been in the first-aid squad for many years and this is one of the most serious accidents I have seen in a while,” Ruggiero said.
Ruggiero said he joined the Coast Guard Auxiliary three years ago after he took a boating-safety class.
The Raritan Yacht Club was hosting a sailboat race Wednesday night, and its tender threw the life ring to the man in the water.
Reilly has been a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary for 23 years and this was his biggest marine rescue. “I like to help people. I do it for my country and I’ve been on the first aid squad (in Colonia) for 40 years, so helping people is part of my life,” he said.
Reilly also did Homeland Security patrols of the New York harbor as a Coast Guard Auxiliary member after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11.
The lifelong Woodbridge residents met when they were members of the Colonia First Aid and Iselin First Aid squads about 30 years ago.
Michael Yatsko was taken to Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy, and released.
Another member, Jim Crincoli of Clark, was on board Ruggiero’s rescue boat as was trainee Liz Hiricko of Hillsborough.
The Coast Guard said Richard Yatsko was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick. The hospital had no record of Yatsko yesterday.
The Coast Guard is investigating the cause of the accident, and no charges have been filed.
A tugboat, Maryland, DBL 70, owned by K-Sea Transport of Richmond Terrace on Staten Island was pulling the barge, a Coast Guard official said. No one was available from K-Sea Transport for comment yesterday.
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: