Paramus Catholic athlete dies after car accident killed parents

She had been in a coma since March 16 collision

Khameryn Oliver, a 17-year-old student-athlete at Paramus Catholic High School, who had remained in a coma since the March 16 five-car accident in Kearny that killed her mother and father, died Wednesday night, her grandmother Karen Oliver said.

Oliver sent a text to NorthJersey.com saying her granddaughter had succumbed to her injuries.

“No one person or family should have to ever endure so much loss and pain,” her uncle, Robert Oliver, posted on social media. “We prayed and God delivered our dear sweet Kham Kham to her final resting place alongside of her dear sweet parents.”

Khameryn had been part of a Paramus Catholic indoor track team’s shuttle hurdles relay squad that had qualified to a national track tournament. She was also a gifted volleyball player. Her family, anticipating a long rehabilitation period, had started a fundraising effort for Khameryn.

The family, which friends and coworkers described as lovely, was involved in a five-car crash on County Road 508 in Kearny, also known as Newark-Jersey City Turnpike. The accident is under investigation.

Rhakeem Oliver was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash on March 16. Shavonn Stewart-Oliver, a vice principal of a school in Passaic, died almost a week later. Initially, she was pulled from the wreckage and had been talking to the officers during the week before she died.

“She was expected to fully recover,” Kearny police Detective Sgt. Michal Gontarczuk said following her death. “She was talking to our officers.”

While the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office has not released much in the way of information, an accident report obtained from Kearny PD shows the crash originated after a car heading east crossed the centerline and sideswiped a westbound car.

The westbound car struck a third car, which spun out, then struck Oliver’s vehicle, which rolled over, and finally also struck a fourth westbound car.

Gontarczuk said the stretch of road where the crash took place can be particularly dangerous.

Although it does not have a large volume of accidents, those that occur there are often very serious, Gontarczuk said.

“That part of the roadway needs a median,” he said of the four-lane county road, which has turning lanes at various intervals. A median might keep cars from colliding, he said.