By Barbara A. Preston | October 24, 2025
Rocky Hill resident Sean Kucharski and his finance Brandie L. Merunka like to spend evenings fishing for catfish off the Washington Street bridge over the Millstone River. Perhaps this hobby might change, after Kucharski was struck by a bicycle in the dark of night and, in his words, was "almost killed."
“Catfish don’t bite until after dark,” he told The Montgomery News in a telephone interview. "That's why we do it." He noted it is common for people to fish off the bridge at night.
They use a lighted tiki torch so people can see them. Unfortunately, on October 6 at about 9:30 pm, a bicyclist, identified later by police as Caleb B. Knowlton, allegedly cruised down the hill on Washington Street (Route 518) at a high rate of speed and onto the sidewalk, according to Kucharski.
The cyclist crashed into Kucharski, 50, and knocked him into the middle of the road.
Sean Kucharski and his finance Brandie L. Merunka fishing for catfish by tiki torch on the Rocky Hill bridge over the Millstone River.
“I was literally knocked out of my Crocs [clogs],” he told The Montgomery News.
“I flew through the air about six feet and landed in the middle of the road.”
Kucharski said he ended up with seven broken ribs, a lacerated liver and kidney, and about $100,000 medical bills.
A man in a pickup truck blocked oncoming traffic at the scene, preventing further injury. “He saved my life,” Kucharski said.
The New Jersey State Police, which services Rocky Hill from its Kingwood Station in Frenchtown, received a 911 call about the accident. Being 45 minutes away, they requested mutual assistance from the Montgomery Township Police Department.
Montgomery Officer Matthew DeCataldo said he arrived at the accident scene in Rocky Hill at about 9:44 pm and “observed the victim sitting on the ground with his fiance.”
The Rocky Hill EMS transported Kucharski to the Princeton Medical Center in Plainsboro. He was transferred to the trauma unit of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center in New Brunswick, then admitted for a three-day stay.
Montgomery police, who filed the accident report, later contacted State Trooper Francisco from Kingwood, and provided him with the information.
“No further action was taken,” according to the report.
Kucharski told The Montgomery News that the cyclist should not have been riding on the sidewalk. And that the cyclist “attempted to get up and ride off” after the accident. Kucharski said he held him by his foot while 911 was called. (This is not recorded in the accident report.)
Kucharski, who worked as a pit master at Dickey’s BBQ in Whiting, had just secured a new job at Montgomery ShopRite when the accident happened.
Now he can’t do that job until he heals, and he said he has no health insurance. Hopefully, he said, he can pay his rent. ■
