‘Aren’t These Russian Workers Expendable? Who Cares?’

Imagine the horror that Irina Siborenko felt as she sunbathed on Roberts Avenue beach, June 11, and was run over by a Wildwood Beach Patrol vehicle. The accident would have been a traumatic impact on anyone, but consider that the young woman was a Russian student, summer worker in a local restaurant.
She sustained severe abrasions and bruising and was embarrassed and unable to work for a week, a true loss to someone whose sole intent on being here was to work and earn money.
Yes, it would be too easy to claim she was fortunate since the accident could have been a fatality, had it run over another part of her body; but what made the case worse, coming from a country where government holds powerful command over one’s life, she was reluctant to report or talk about the case.
Her friend and co-worker Anetta Khaygsukhova told the Herald’s reporter Lauren Suit about the accident, but Siborenko was reluctant to comment on her injuries after speaking with the Wildwood Police Department.
“She has tire marks all over her arm and down her hip,” said Khaygsukhova. “She hasn’t been able to sleep, much less carry a tray.”
Fear after talking with police? This is America, or at least it was when I came to work today.
If the same accident happened to a South Philadelphia native, it’s safe to bet the victim would not have called the Herald, but the Philadelphia Inquirer or Daily News, and the law suits would likely have been filed in a matter of days.
Being an alien, one can imagine how Siborenko would be reluctant to complain about the city worker who was driving the vehicle that ran her over. Language may be one barrier; fear of retaliation or retribution may well have been another, ingrained in the young woman from hearing tales from family members of living in a police state.
Wildwood Beach Patrol Chief Lou Cirelli told Suit that neither he nor any member of the beach patrol could comment on the incident.
The Herald was obligated to file an Open Public Records Request with the Wildwood Police Department in order to obtain the official report on the accident. Normally, police press releases are freely given, an indication that there was reluctance on the city’s part to release information about the accident.
The city considered the incident an accident caused primarily due to Siborenko’s position in the blind spot of the driver. It’s been a while since I was on the wide Wildwood beach, but I don’t recall any signs that warn sunbathers to place their bodies in such a way as to be seen by a beach vehicle’s driver, at least in broad daylight.
Ryan Meyer, a supervisor for the Wildwood Beach Patrol, told investigating Police Officer Mark Damico he was driving the beach patrol pickup northbound, about midway between the waterline and the boardwalk, when he heard lifeguards call over the radio that things at the Roberts Avenue location were OK.
Meyer told police that nothing had come over the radio about an incident so he decided to stop by Roberts Avenue to check on the situation. He told police that he turned the truck south and approached the lifeguard stand at the waterline, according to police reports.
Fellow lifeguard Michael Syrnick, who was manning that location, told Meyer that he had been assisting Alberto Quinteros and his grandchildren exit the water.
Meyer told police that after he talked with Syrnick, he let his foot off the brake and began idling forward, turning west toward the boardwalk, when Quinteros and surrounding sun-bathers yelled for him to stop.
Meyer, according to the police report, said that he got out of the truck and saw Siborenko lying underneath the vehicle on her stomach.
Siborenko, who was lying to the right of the truck, had said she was unaware of any activity around her or the truck pulling up near her because she was sleeping.
That’s nothing unusual for visitors to the Wildwood beach; in fact, it’s the reason many flock to the free beach that the city touts as a calling card.
The report states that Meyer, Syrnick and Quinteros helped Siborenko out from underneath the truck, where she was transported to the Schellenger Avenue beach patrol aid station and then to Cape Regional Medical Center.
When Suit’s story was posted on the Herald’s Web site, one comment under it, in particular, offended me in a way few could, “‘Aren’t these Russian workers expendable? Who cares?’”
It proved how at least one person among us thinks, and that is a tragedy. It shows how little someone values life.
When did one life become more precious than another because of one’s country of birth?
There seems a seething hatred among some of the population against migrant workers, whether from Mexico, Russia, Ukraine, Ireland or Jamaica. Why? Because they will do the jobs Americans don’t want to do? Because they will work for meager wages? Because they are willing to work?
I extend to Irina Siborenko a personal apology for what took place on the Wildwood beach, and remind her that there are many good people in Cape May County who wish her well and a speedy recovery. Not everyone has a low estimation of fellow beings.
We are all immigrants or from immigrant stock whether or not we want to admit it.