This is not the first time someone has crashed through the fence at the historic Broad Street Cemetery in Bridgeton.
BRIDGETON -- Desecration.
That's what Jim Bergmann calls it.
Once again a vehicle has crashed through the fence at historic Broad Street Cemetery in Bridgeton. Not only was a large section of iron fence lost, several gravestones were toppled and damaged, Bergmann says.
"Not again. I couldn't believe it," Bergmann said Friday of his reaction when he learned of the incident. "We've just been through it and here we are again."
It was just two years ago that a pickup truck driver crashed through the cemetery fence and damaged gravestones.
That time a Vineland man was charged with driving while intoxicated. But that wasn't the first accident at the cemetery. Bergmann says there have been at least a half dozen similar accidents in the last two decades -- fence-crashers.
This time it was a case of hit and run. No one actually witnessed the damage occur. Somehow the vehicle's driver was able to maneuver through the fallen gravestones and drive out of the cemetery through the hole in the fence they created when they came in.
The damage was discovered Monday morning and reported to both city and state police and the county Sheriff's Office. So far no one has been arrested.
A member of the Broad Street Cemetery Association, the group responsible for the cemetery's upkeep, Bergmann is hoping someone can provide authorities with the information needed to catch the driver.
"How about if he had hit somebody's car or hit somebody's child and kept on going?" Bergmann said.
The accident took place on the cemetery's western side where Central Avenue intersects with West Avenue and forms a "T." At that point, drivers on Central Avenue must turn left or right.
The driver involved in the latest round of damage did neither. They went straight --straight through the cemetery fence. There were no skid marks indicating the vehicle never stopped at the stop sign which is outlined with small flashing lights.
The vehicle plowed more than 50 feet into the cemetery carrying part of the fence with it. The impact was so strong that one stone was knocked off its base and hurled about 10 feet, striking another gravemarker.
At least nine stones were damaged. Some of the smaller stones were smashed into the soft earth.
Deep ruts left in the ground mark the vehicle's route in and out.
Damage is estimated at $30,000, about the same amount the last incident cost.
By Friday most of the toppled stones had been put back in place. Bergmann said fellow cemetery association member Ken Freitag had taken care of that major chore.
Some 10,000 people are buried in the 10-acre cemetery. The first burial in 1798, Bergmann says.
With its main entrance on Broad Street, the cemetery surrounds the historic First Presbyterian Church bui8lt in 1792.
Among many soldiers and notable residents of Cumberland County that rest there the cemetery is also the burial place of the eleventh governor of New Jersey, Elias P. Seeley, said Bergmann who is also an authority on the history of the cemetery and Bridgeton itself.
There are several U.S. congressmen buried there along with a U.S. senator, author George Agnew Chamberlain and Judge Thomas W. Trenchard who presided over the trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann in the Lindbergh baby kidnapping. Those graves are not in the section most recently damaged.
Bergmann says he believes the vehicle that caused the damage was a high truck, the large type used for travel off-road.
Why? There was no trail left from a punctured oil pan. No trail of anti-freeze from a punctured radiator. All indicating to him that the vehicle was high enough not to scrape bottom on the smaller stones it drove over. There were no paint marks left on the damaged stones or fence. The vehicle might have even had a front bumper protector, he theorizes.
One thing that was found is a cover for the electrical hookup from a truck that would be used to connect lights to a trailer being towed. One part of the cemetery fence the offender backed into shows a dent probably made by a ball hitch on the back of the vehicle.
Once the vehicle got out of the cemetery it headed south on West Avenue, leaving only a muddy tire prints behind, Bergmann said.
This most recent incident is similar to one that took place in late December 2013. A pickup truck driven by a Vineland man pickup truck failed to stop at the intersection where Central Avenue meets West Avenue, flew over a guardrail and through the cemetery fence.
That guardrail has since been removed.
Both Central Avenue and West Avenue are county roads and Bergmann said he hopes the county can do something that will prevent vehicles from running into the cemetery.
Cumberland County Engineer and Director of Public Works John Knoop Friday said the county is "trying to work with the property owners to come up with a solution."
As for paying for the damage -- and for cemetery upkeep itself -- Bergmann said donations are always welcome and can be sent to the Broad Street Cemetery Association in care of the First Presbyterian Church, 119 Commerce St., Bridgeton, NJ 08302.
Bergmann hopes the person responsible for the latest damage is caught soon and brought to justice.
"It is desecration. These people who are buried here can't do anything," he said Friday at the cemetery. "Somebody has to keep alive the respect for the dead."
Bill Gallo Jr. may be reached at bgallo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow South Jersey Times on Twitter @TheSJTimes. Find NJ.com on Facebook.