A community-policing event meant to teach Wildwood residents about the dangers of drunk driving ended with five people injured after an 11-year-old wearing intoxication-simulation goggles lost control of a golf cart and plowed into bystanders at Fox Park in 2024. Two years later, the victims have filed a lawsuit against the city, its police department, and the officer who was riding alongside the child driver.
The crash happened during Wildwood's National Night Out gathering on August 6, 2024, according to a report from NJ.com. The simulation course, set up on Fox Park's ball field and enclosed by orange barriers about four feet high, was designed to give an 11-year-old attendee a firsthand sense of impaired driving while navigating the low-speed vehicle with the goggles on, per the outlet's report on the lawsuit. Officer Jonathan Goraj was overseeing the course and riding along with the child in the golf cart, according to the lawsuit. According to the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, vehicles classified as low-speed vehicles cannot exceed 25 mph and must have headlamps, front and rear turn signal lamps, tail lamps, and stop lamps.
According to the lawsuit, the child accelerated and lost control of the vehicle, which broke through the enclosure and plowed into display tables set up by event sponsors before striking bystanders Christopher Hines, David Galambos, and Galambos's grandson. Hines, Galambos, and the child all suffered neck injuries, along with burns and abrasions, the lawsuit states, while Hines and the child driver also sustained back injuries. The boy's mother, sibling, and grandmother were physically uninjured, according to the same account.
Five Hospitalized as Fire Crews Respond
Wildwood Fire Department personnel were already stationed at Fox Park for the National Night Out event and immediately rendered aid, transporting four adults and one child to the hospital, according to Patch. Per Wildwood officials, five people injured in the crash were taken to Cooper University Cape Regional Hospital in Cape May Court House. The incident remained under investigation, and witnesses were asked to contact the Wildwood Police Department or Cape May County Prosecutor's Office, as reported by New Jersey 101.5 FM.
Municipal officials noted that the drunk-driving golf cart simulation had been a fixture of the city's National Night Out for 20 consecutive years before the crash. Wildwood's National Night Out, like similar events held annually across New Jersey and the country, aims to foster community-police relations. The event traces back to the National Association of Town Watch, which launched the first nationwide National Night Out in August 1984 after being founded in 1981 by Lower Merion, Pennsylvania community watch volunteer Matt Peskin, according to the Queens Gazette. That organization supports community-watch groups nationwide.
Lawsuit Names City, Police Department, Officer and National Group
Hines, Galambos, and Galambos's grandson filed suit in Cape May County Superior Court in August, alleging negligence in the golf-cart crash. The lawsuit, filed by Philadelphia-based attorney James Wells, names Wildwood, the Wildwood Police Department, Officer Goraj, and the National Association of Town Watch as defendants and seeks both compensatory and punitive damages. Hines is from Wildwood, while Galambos and his grandson are from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.
Hines and the Ohio family argue that Goraj failed to help the child avoid the crowd or stop the vehicle before it struck them, per the lawsuit's account as detailed by NJ.com. Intoxication-simulation equipment like the goggles used in the demonstration can affect reaction time and motor skills and simulate impaired driving, according to the linked source. The source also discusses safe use of the goggles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says many schools have used fatal vision goggles, peer-to-peer programs, role plays, or drunk-driving simulations to increase students’ perceived risks of drinking and driving.
Tort Claims Act Sets High Bar for Recovery
New Jersey's Tort Claims Act requires anyone filing a personal injury claim against a municipality or local police department to submit a formal Notice of Claim within 90 days of an incident before pursuing litigation in state court, according to the New Jersey Department of the Treasury. The cited Treasury guidance addresses the notice requirement for claims against public entities and local police departments. The lawsuit names the city, the police department, Goraj, and the national nonprofit as defendants.
Fox Park itself sits at 4500 Ocean Avenue directly across from the Wildwoods Convention Center and includes a softball field, amphitheater, and outdoor recreation courts used for major city events, according to Visit New Jersey. Later in August 2024, the Wildwood Police Department drew further public safety scrutiny after a department pickup truck ran over and injured a sunbather on the Wildwood beach, as reported by the Press of Atlantic City. Both incidents involved department vehicles operating in crowded, pedestrian-heavy settings during the same summer.
