Hoboken bar owner in deadly DUI
03
December
12/3/2008:
Just got this sent to me:
Gaslight owner involved in fatal accident
A Hoboken bar owner has been charged with death by auto and driving while intoxicated after his best friend perished in a crash in Jersey City early Tuesday morning. Gaslight bar owner Nicholas Bergantino appeared in court yesterday afternoon to face the charges. Robert Rosario, 31, was killed in the accident. The bar owner was also charged with reckless driving in the collision with a tractor trailer. They had just left a party at the bar when the accident occurred.
101. truth1 | December 6th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Drinking + Driving = Death. A reminder to all of us. Limo’s and cabs are readily available. Especially with the holiday’s…let’s be safe and not sorry
Really enjoy the season 
102. r1975 | December 6th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Yes Gaslight was closed. Why do people feel the need to spread false info as if it is fact when they don’t know?
103. manolo | December 6th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
re # 102 …sorry if I erred, I pass this way everyday and saw the lights on inside. assumption = ass.
hey tho I saw the video and wow Mr. Nick looked pretty good for a fatal crash!
104. King of Rock | December 6th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Katie_Scarlett wrote:
It is the same test that they use on you - It is called the dumb fat whore test - I hear you passed with flying colors.
Science, its a fact.
Hope this clown has KY for jail.
105. notnow | December 6th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
This is tragic no matter how you look at it. My condolences to both of the families.
I know this road very well. It has a nasty turn that ends up at a traffic light. There are plenty of accidents there, especially in the rain.
What I find interesting is the comments made by a witness driver. I believe there is more to the story and he should possibly be charged too.
He states that he was in the left lane and he saw the BMW in his rear view mirror. He said that that he was traveling at 50 MPH and saw the BMW barreling down on him and going in the right lane to pass him. He than goes on to state that he knew the BMW was not going to make it, because he saw the Garbage truck backing into the highway. I feel that he must have wedged the BMW in. If he were trailing the BMW, he would have been involved in the accident. If he was directly alongside it, the BMW would have side swiped him because the BMW ended up in the left lane against the divider. This person had to have ended up in front of the BMW, as to not having been directly involved in the accident. You have to google earth this road to get a better picture.
This same witness just happened to be the guy who video taped Nick directly after the accident. He admitted that he did not call 911 because he felt that others already did. It almost seems like what happens when your driving and put your signal on, and the other driver speeds up as not to let you in, forcing you to jam on your breaks to avoid an accident ahead of you. I feel that this driver may have also been speeding, and created a blind spot around that nasty turn. The sad part is that the report indicates that Nick never saw the Garbage truck and even apply the break. The Garbage truck driver reported that he thought he backed up into a telephone poll.
Don’t get me wrong, the facts are that Nick did test positive for a DUI at the Hospital. I believe that this may have been a factor with his response time, but this accident may have happened with a sober aggressive driver also. I feel that the witness video freak may have had more to do with this than he has lead onto. I really hope I am wrong, but this guy’s story, ( the witness) just seems a bit off.
Ps. The garbage truck under no circumstance should have been backing onto that highway, no matter what the time was. That was just negligent and lazy. That parking lot is huge and the truck could have easily pulled out head first. Perhabs the headlights would have made him visable, even if it was in the last seconds. An accident might have still occured, but maybe not with such a horrific outcome. Rest in Peace.
106. CreativeAngel | December 6th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
truth1 wrote:
Agreed.
107. Double | December 7th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
This DUI and pedestrian safety problem could be easily eliminated in Hoboken if the Town officials and the Police Dept. got off their asses and did some work. Implement an aggressive campaign of DUI checks, and traffic policing, pull people over and give tickets! - and the town would make a fortune. They have more then enough Police and Fire personnel to make it happen now.
There only 5 roads in and out of town, on all the big drinking nights, set up folks at each road, checking cars. Word gets out fast and drinkers will either take mass transit or go somewhere else.
It is that simple.
108. emarche | December 7th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Double wrote:
No, it’s not that simple. For whatever reason, they don’t feel like enforcing the laws on the books. And that’s not just Hoboken, it seems to be this entire area. Just ask Chris Campos.
109. bmacqueens | December 7th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Re. deterrence of drunk driving …
I grew up with a place on the shore of Lake Erie. It was typical Great Lakes beach stuff … two lane roads, twisty, blind curves, random 10-15 mph twists that come up on you out of nowhere, little cottages and lots of amateur folks on the big weekends.
There was one big catch, however.
On the big party weekends, the local cops had a “Checkpoint Charlie” at every major route in and out of the beach region. If you got behind the wheel after drinking, it was fairly certain that you would get nailed. Word spread among all the cottages, and homeowners made sure that their guests knew long beforehand that getting out of the area and headed back to the city would be like driving through “MiG Alley.”
Even my ne’er do well boozer friends made sure to have a designated driver on those weekends.
This would be beyond easy to enforce in Hoboken. As someone else just wrote, there are only five roads in/out of this town. Observer Hwy. to the south, Paterson Plank and (er, what’s it called, go right instead of left?) to the west, Park and Willow to the north.
It would be beyond easy for the local constabulary to run random Checkpoint Charlie Weekends around here. Their failure to do so says volumes about who has the power and influence in this town, and who does not.
Who has the power? Bar owners. Who does not? Anyone who does not own a bar and contribute to Davey’s re-election fund.
It ain’t a difficult concept, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Guv’ner, and the rest of you. Get crackin’.
110. homeworld | December 8th, 2008 at 1:02 am
bmacqueens wrote:
What about Jersey City and Weehawken? I wonder why they don’t have their own checkpoints right across the border to catch all the drunken vehicles leaving Hoboken.
If Hoboken is afraid of the bar owners, what do the neighboring towns have to fear?
111. needpeace4ever | December 8th, 2008 at 9:40 am
a good friend of mine ,that happens to be a policeman,ONCE SAID TO ME “A GOOD COP NEVER GETS WET OR COLD”….so forget about DUI check points coming out of Hoboken…is to cold now.
112. nbm3 | December 8th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
manolo wrote:
What does his age have to do with owning the gaslight? The guy isn’t a 9-5er like most of you on this board.