Wrong turn, then shock and horror at MIA

What began as a day of prayer and fellowship turned into a surreal scene of stunned, bloodied passengers and twisted metal.

There was the sickening sound of crunching metal early Saturday as a busload of Jehovah’s Witnesses was low-bridged by a concrete overpass at Miami International Airport, peeling back the top of the vehicle “like a can of sardines.”

Airport workers running to the scene found shocked passengers thrown into the aisle or trapped in their seats by the wreckage.

Riders in the front rows were crushed — two of them killed, others seriously injured.

The driver of the bus, 47-year-old Ramon Ferreiro, took a wrong turn off LeJeune Road, entering the airport by mistake, then rolled past multiple yellow signs warning tall vehicles. He drove on, approaching an overpass whose sign said “8ft-6in”. The driver either didn’t see it, couldn’t read it, or realized it too late.

The bus stood 11 feet tall.

“The last thing he should have done is to keep going,” said Greg Chin, airport spokesman. “That goes against all logic.”

Ferreiro, whose driver’s seat was lower than those of the passengers, was not injured.

One passenger, 86-year-old Miami resident Serfin Castillo, was killed on impact, and all 31 others were taken by ambulance to local hospitals. Thirteen ended up at Jackson Memorial’s Ryder Trauma Center, where one of them, 56-year-old Francisco Urana of Miami, died shortly after arriving.

Three remained in critical condition Saturday night, and three had been released.

Luis Jimenez, 72, got a few stitches on his lip and hurt his hand. He said the group left the Sweetwater Kingdom Hall about 7 a.m., bound for West Palm Beach.

“I was sitting in the back when it happened,” Jimenez said. “We were on our way to an assembly and lost a brother today. I’m very sad.”

Delvis Lazo, 15, a neighbor and member of the same congregation, described Castillo as a “nice, old man.” He often saw Castillo at religious gatherings, and their families have known each other for more than 15 years.

The last time Lazo saw him was about two months ago, as he prepped for a talk before his congregation.

“He gave me a thumbs up, told me that everything was going to be all right,” he said.

The bus, one of three traveling to the Spanish-language general assembly on Saturday, had been contracted by the congregation, which has fewer than 150 members.

According to public records, the bus belongs to Miami Bus Service Corporation, a Miami company owned by Mayling and Alberto Hernandez that offers regularly scheduled service between South Florida and Gainesville, often used by University of Florida students. At the home address listed for the company and the owners, Mayling Hernandez told The Miami Herald that passenger safety is her primary concern.

“At this time I’m worried about the driver and the families of the victims. I’m praying for them,” she said. “My job is to worry about the safety of the passengers who are our clients. What we do requires a lot of responsibility. I didn’t know the passengers but that doesn’t mean I’m not suffering.”

Neighbor Armando Bacigalupi described the owners as “caring people” and said he had seen buses park briefly in front of the house.

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Bachelorette Ashley Hebert and JP Rosenbaum are Married

Ashley Hebert is a bachelorette no more!

The 28-year-old dentist and her construction manager fiancé J.P. Rosenbaum, 35, walked down the aisle on Saturday in Pasadena, California, reports People Magazine.

The ceremony, officiated by Bachelor and Bachelorette host Chris Harrison, was attended by familiar faces from the series including Ali Fedotowsky, Emily Maynard, and Jason and Molly Mesnick.

Video: 'Bachelorette' Ashley Hebert and Fiance J.P.'s Passionate PDA

Ashley and J.P.'s exchanging of vows will be televised December 16 on a two-hour special on ABC.

The season seven sweeties will be the second Bachelorette couple ever to televise their walk down the aisle, following in the footsteps of Trista and Ryan Sutter, who married in December 2003.

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SI man torched in cooking accident, neighbors put out flames: sources

A cooking accident turned a Staten Island man into a human torch who staggered in flames onto his front lawn, where horrified neighbors tried to extinguish him with blankets, sources said.

Louis Gloria, 60, was cooking in the kitchen of his Eltingville home at about 4:30 p.m. today when a grease fire erupted, engulfing his entire body, fire officials and neighbors said.

The desperate man first tried to douse the flames with water, but that only made the fire worse. In agony, he stumbled out of his Winchester Avenue home.

“He was burning alive,” said neighbor Edward Leavy Jr., 43. “It was a pretty horrific sight.”

Edward’s brother Matthew Leavy, 46, called 911 and then quickly ran over to aid the burning man, but the flames wouldn’t go down.

“The problem was you would try to smother the flames but it would just reignite, Leavy said. “His screams were just nightmarish. When the flame didn’t go down after two or three minutes, we all thought he was going to die.

Neighbors and relatives did their best to keep the flames under control until firefighters showed up on scene. Gloria was transported to Staten Island University Hospital in stable condition. His wife, who was home at the time, was also transported and is being treated for shock.

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Palmetto reopens to traffic after crane crash shuts down roadway

A crane on top of a semi struck an overpass on the busy Palmetto Expressway Friday evening, creating a messy parking lot on one of South Florida’s busiest thoroughfares.

Traffic had to be diverted away in both directions on State Road 826 and Northwest 27th Avenue, causing major delays and detours during rush hour traffic.

The bobcat crane was sitting atop the tractor trailer traveling north on 27th Avenue when the accident occurred around 4:15 p.m. causing significant damage. Engineers from the state Department of Transportation were called out to inspect the overpass and determine the extent of the damage while crews worked to clean up the debris.

Later in the evening, after getting clearance from the structural engineers, the Florida Highway Patrol reopened the street, allowing traffic to flow again in both directions.

Around 8 p.m., FHP trooper Joe Sanchez, a spokesman for the patrol, gave the good news: “The Palmetto is open, thank God almighty.”

However, two lanes of Northwest 27th Avenue remained closed while crews worked into the night to repair the damage and finish the cleanup.

There were no injuries or reports of damage to any other vehicles.

“Our precaution is to get this open as quickly as possible,’’ Sanchez said. “But we have to be able to make sure it safe so cars don’t fall down onto 27th Avenue.”

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Girl’s ‘sex abuse’ silence

She would have been exiled from the only world she had ever known.

The teen accusing a prominent Hasidic leader of molesting her testified yesterday that she had hid the years of abuse so she wouldn’t be banished by her parents and the rest of their insular Brooklyn community.

“Satmar would have kicked me out, and if Satmar kicks you out, nobody accepts you,” the stoic 17-year-old woman told a rapt jury — providing a rare glimpse into the secret culture of the ultra-Orthodox Hasidim.

“No one in Williamsburg would accept me.”

Prosecutors say Nechemya Weberman, on trial for alleged molestation in Brooklyn, began abusing her during counseling sessions when she was just 12.

Spencer Burnett

ON TRIAL: Nechemya Weberman, a leader of Brooklyn’s Hasidic community, appears in court yesterday for his sex-abuse trial.

She never told her parents or school because she would have been cast out of the Hasidic community, she testified.

“I thought they would never believe me, since he was supposedly a god in Williamsburg,” she said.

When asked her status in her community at the time, 2007 to 2010, the teen replied, “Nothing. Just someone sitting there.”

When asked her status at school, she said, “A piece of dirt.”

The teen has allegedly faced intimidation and harassment since she went public with charges against Weberman, highly respected in the Satmar sect.

She said she feared Weberman because of his role in a powerful group that demands Jews in the community to follow religious rules and dress codes.

“Is part of the reason you didn’t say anything because he was Vaad Ha’Tnius?” Assistant District Attorney Kevin O’Donnell asked, referring to the group.

“Yes,” she answered.

Marcos Masri, 29, an Orthodox Jew who lives in Williamsburg, said, “Vaad Ha’Tnius is a terrorist group in the community.”

“Anybody who goes outside the rules of the Hasidic community, they will terrorize them.”

Defense lawyers say Weberman did nothing wrong.

They claim the teen accused Weberman in retaliation for a bizarre incident in which he and her father secretly filmed her having sex with her boyfriend — a claim that has been barred from mention in the trial.

The teen, who recently married, strode into court yesterday in a grey dress and black Ugg boots, carrying the green rubber stress ball she has squeezed every day of her testimony.

She cried for the first time in four days of testimony when she graphically recounted the things she says Weberman made her do.

Her husband nervously waited for her outside the courtroom — unable to attend because he may be called as a witness. He comforted her during trial recesses.

In one particularly chilling story, the teen recounted how Weberman told her how he had watched her playing as a child.

“He said he used to watch, and he said he always had a feeling I was going to go to him and he couldn’t wait,” she recalled.

Much of the teen’s testimony spoke to the powerless role she held in Hasidic Brooklyn.

She also testified that after she finally reported Weberman to police in 2010, she wrote a letter to the school saying she was “the girl they put through hell for three years” and, “They should do better for girls who wanted to speak up in the future.”

The teen testified earlier this week that she was sent to Weberman for counseling after she talked to a boy and got into trouble at school for not following strict dress codes.

Because the Satmar sect provides no sex education for women until shortly before they marry, she said she didn’t understand what Weberman was doing.

The trial ended at 2 p.m. so participants could return home for Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest.

Weberman is expected to take the stand in his own defense next week.

jsaul@nypost.com

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Boat Show may block Miami’s 2016 Super Bowl bid

This winter, the biggest NFL match-up in South Florida might be Super Bowl versus Boat Show.

As South Florida readies a bid for the 2016 Super Bowl, it must contend with a major potential conflict on the tourism calendar. The National Football League may move the Super Bowl to Presidents’ Day weekend, already home to the five-day Miami International Boat Show since the 1940s.

It’s a significant enough conflict that, in the past, local tourism officials have declined to pursue a Super Bowl if it fell on boat show weekend. But this time around they may have no choice. For the first time, the NFL is requiring that potential host cities agree to a Presidents’ Day weekend Super Bowl if they want to pursue the big game at all, said two people who have seen the NFL request for Super Bowl bids.

The NFL “invited South Florida [to bid] knowing there was going to be an issue with Presidents’ Day weekend and the boat show,” said Nicki Grossman, Broward’s tourism director. “In the past, South Florida has not responded to a Super Bowl date that included Presidents’ Day weekend. This package is different.”

South Florida vies with New Orleans as the top Super Bowl host, with government and tourism leaders touting the game as both a boon to the economy and a publicity bonanza. But the notion of accommodating both Super Bowl and boat show — not to mention a major arts festival in Coconut Grove — strikes some top tourism officials as a bad idea.

“There is not sufficient hotel inventory available in Miami that weekend to host a Super Bowl,” said William Talbert, president of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We have taken a close look at that weekend, and it’s not physically possible in Miami to host Super Bowl during the Presidents’ Day weekend because of the boat show and the Coconut Grove Arts Festival. The hotel inventory is all being used for these two great events.”

His comments are at odds with the region’s top Super Bowl organizer and reflect the burden that the boat show may be to South Florida’s Super Bowl hopes for 2016 and 2017. The NFL invited Miami and San Francisco to bid for the 2016 Super Bowl by April 1, with the loser vying with Houston for the 2017 game. Talbert said the bid package states both decisions will be made in May.

For now, South Florida’s Super Bowl organizers face a largely hypothetical challenge, because the current NFL schedule has the Super Bowl occurring two weeks before Presidents’ Day weekend. The bid requirements for the ’16 and ’17 Super Bowls include three consecutive weekends as possibilities for the game, with the latest falling on the Presidents’ Day holiday.

Still, possible logistical hurdles may combine with political obstacles if the Miami Dolphins resume their push for a tax-funded renovation of Sun Life Stadium, the Super Bowl’s South Florida home.

Last year, the Dolphins proposed that Broward and Miami-Dade counties subsidize a $225 million renovation at Sun Life as a way to keep the region competitive for Super Bowls and other large events. The renovation includes a partial roof that would prevent the kind of drenching Super Bowl spectators suffered in 2007 when a rare February downpour hit Miami Gardens.

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Artwork of young Miami-Dade artist will be showcased during Art Basel week

A week into his 18th birthday, Rey “Rson” Jaffet is already a promising local artist - and he’s still attending high school in the Miami-Dade public school system.

And this period in his life is what his art tries to capture, said the Miami Palmetto High senior. “It’s that point when you’re a teen but are maturing into adulthood,’’ he said.

Jaffet might be young but he’s an old hand at art. He sold his first piece in 7th grade for $5,000. It was a colorful three-panel African-themed work called New Horizon.

Fittingly, many of his artwork is done with children’s colored pencils and spray paint.

Next week, Jaffet will join thousands of older local and international artists who will have their artwork on display in Miami Beach and Wynwood as part of Art Basel week.

Several Jaffet pieces will hang at the 50 Shades of Art Show at the 1004 Gallery in Wynwood at 175 NW 23rd St.

Meet and greet with the artists will be from 6:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday and next Wednesday. His works sells for between $1,000 to $5,000.

Among the pieces showcased at the gallery is Jaffet’s award-winning self-portrait called Split Decision Within, which reveals inner struggle. “Through my art, I try to portray hardships, achievements and misunderstanding as it relates to the modern teenage lifestyle,” he said.

The Kendall resident recently won the prestigious 2012 National Scholastic American Visions Drawing Award, which honors outstanding pieces in the nation which are then displayed in Carnegie Hall in New York. He won for his self-portrait.

Jaffet’s work is also part of the 2012-2013 Art.Write.Now Tour that will visit Detroit, Virginia Beach, Kansas City and Fort Worth.

And it’s not his first time in the big art arena. His work was on display in Wynwood/South Beach during Art Basel 2011.

Jaffet's artistic style is described as “encompass sing modern realism along with urban influences.”

Jaffet’s says he also works with oils, acrylics, mixed media, graffiti and designs sneakers.

Jaffet, who lives in Kendall, is the son of physical therapist parents; his father is an athletic trainer for the Miami Heat. Jaffet has the support of his family and two respected local artists — Miguel Paredes and Enrique "Sero" Cruz — who have taken Jaffet under their wing. “They’ve been wonderful to me,” he said.

Jaffet’s goal now is to win a scholarship to a prestigious art school.

“Then I want to be a full-time artist for the rest of my life,’’ he said.

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‘Rubber stamp’ doc busted in online Rx ring

A once-beloved Upper East Side gynecologist was busted yesterday on charges he started rubber-stamping prescriptions for an online drug ring around the time his medical license was restricted for “gross negligence.”

Dr. Edmund Kaplan, 50, was among 10 people nabbed in an interstate scheme to peddle powerful pain pills over the Internet, authorities said.

The ring allegedly raked in more than $13 million by operating Web sites where customers could get highly addictive narcotics by filling out questionnaires about their medical histories.Court records also show that Kaplan settled two malpractice suits, one of which involved a patient who got $2 million less than a month before dying of uterine cancer she said he failed to diagnose.

The information was then sent to physicians — including Kaplan — who signed prescriptions that were filled by pharmacies involved in the scam, according to the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office.

Others charged yesterday include pharmacist Peter Riccio, 59, of Warren, NJ, whose three drugstores in New Jersey and Pennsylvania allegedly dispensed massive amounts of Fioricet, Soma, Ultram and other drugs between 2010 and earlier this month.

Kaplan was arrested in California, where records show he moved to Redondo Beach earlier this year.

He previously maintained a Fifth Avenue practice where he gained an online reputation as both a “great doctor” and a “sweet man.”

”I would have a few more children just so Dr. Kaplan could deliver them,” according to one review posted on yelp.com.

But in November 2010, Kaplan admitted to state medical authorities that he had committed multiple acts of professional misconduct, including performing a 2007 hysterectomy during which he “lacerated” the woman’s bladder.

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California Pizza Kitchen brings prototype to Sawgrass Mills

The restaurant chain that took barbecued chicken pizza mainstream is ready to push the culinary envelope again. How about a pizza topped with roasted Brussels sprouts and applewood smoked bacon or a Korean barbecue pizza with pork loin and spicy kimchee salad?

Innovative menu items are just one piece of what’s unique about California Pizza Kitchen’s new flagship restaurant unveiled Thursday at Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise. The first of its kind, the Sawgrass location aims to reinvigorate the brand that started in 1985 in Beverly Hills.

“The whole idea is about taking the best of what put us on the map and making it relevant for 2012 and beyond,” said G.J. Hart, who took over as chief executive officer of the chain just over a year ago. “Over the years the brand morphed from being a leader and it became a follower of food trends. We want to bring back the hip, cool feel.”

The changes are obvious from the moment you walk into the restaurant, which opens to the public Monday. The new look is all about focusing on the chain’s California roots. Very little of the bright yellow and chrome remains. The design is California-casual with earth tones and reclaimed wood everywhere from the walls to the floor and tables. An outdoor terrace with couches and fire pits is designed to encourage lingering. Large windows and glass doors let in lots of natural light and fold open to enjoy the weather.

Pizza is center stage with the kitchen designed so diners can watch the pizza makers at work. At the Sawgrass location — and by mid-2013 at all restaurants — pizzas will once again by hand-tossed. Currently the chain uses a pizza press to make the dough more uniform.

The new focus is on upping the culinary quotient across the board with dishes like a roasted beets and whipped goat cheese salad, plus a sweet pea carbonara featuring pea-filled pasta purses tossed with Italian pancetta and a Romano cream sauce. These are some of the unique items only on the Sawgrass menu, which also features a specialty menu of hand-crafted cocktails.

Chain-wide the company has actually slimmed the menu from more than 100 items to 74 in order to improve execution. But there are also more healthy choices like quinoa and arugula salad or a fire-roasted chile relleno stuffed with chicken, cheese, mushrooms, spinach and eggplant that dishes up at only 380 calories.

“As we grew, we didn’t keep up with the creativity on the menu and we tried to be all things to all people,” said Brian Sullivan, senior vice president of culinary innovation, who has been with the company for 24 years. “We’re always going to be pizza-centric. But we’ll continue to push the envelope with these specialty items that resonate with who we are. We don’t want items that you are going to see in other restaurants.”

The chain chose Sawgrass to unveil its new flagship location because of a combination of the area’s diverse demographic base and the influx of international visitors. South Florida has already been a strong market for the brand, which has seven locations in the tri-county area stretching from Coral Gables to Palm Beach Gardens.

The opening is the culmination of a new vision that began to take shape when Golden Gate Capital purchased California Pizza Kitchen in July 2011 for $470 million, taking the company private and bringing in Hart as the new chief executive.

“They saw a brand that was undervalued,” said Hart, who has an ownership stake in the chain. “This is an iconic brand with so much brand equity. If we can bring the excitement and enthusiasm back we’re only going to see it go up.”

Industry experts say the changes make sense because the brand still has a loyal following, although it has not kept pace with the competition.

“It’s a good time for them to go back to what were the fundamental things that made the brand so intriguing,” said Dennis Lombardi of WD Partners, a restaurant industry consultant. “The difficulty is going to be getting the word out to consumers that this is different. The devil is always in the details in these kind of evolutions.”

Based on consumer reaction, the plan is to take pieces of the Sunrise concept and introduce it into the chain’s other 268 existing restaurants. Some restaurants could be completely remodeled, but most will only get elements of the new prototype, which cost $2 million in Sunrise, Hart said. The company’s Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton locations could be strong candidates for remodeling next year or early 2014, he said.

Community and business leaders, who got a first look at the restaurant on Thursday, were impressed.

“This is phenomenal,” said Luanne Lenberg, general manager of Sawgrass Mills. “We’re so excited to have this caliber of restaurant and to be their test for the rest of the world.”

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Miami-Dade ethics board rebukes two city of Miami commissioners

The county ethics commission dinged Miami Commissioner Frank Carollo this week for phoning the police chief after Carollo was pulled over for a traffic stop.

Separately, Miami Commission Vice Chairman Marc Sarnoff was reprimanded for not filing a gift disclosure when the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau paid his way to Brazil.

Sarnoff said his travels did not constitute a gift because he carried out public business. “I did everything I could do, including getting legal advice, to determine that the trip was not a gift,” he said.

Carollo denied wrongdoing in a response to the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust written by his attorney. He declined comment Wednesday.

The grievance against Carollo said that he called Miami Police Chief Manuel Orosa during a traffic stop in Coconut Grove in August. Carollo was pulled over after attempting to drive his black Lexus around a stopped recycling truck. He called the chief, who called the district commander, who reached out to the officer making the traffic stop.

The officer let Carollo go with a warning.

In the written response to the ethics commission, Carollo’s attorney said the commissioner had never asked Orosa for special treatment. Rather, Carollo called the chief “to inquire ‘what the problem was’ since the circumstances seemed odd.”

The “odd circumstances” included another car stop in the area.

“Commissioner Carollo’s request for a status [report] was well within his authority to communicate with the police chief, and was not accompanied by any request to obtain any resolution of the vehicle stop,” attorney Benedict Kuehne wrote.

Kuehne added: “The officer made the very reasonable decision to issue no traffic citation because the circumstances did not warrant the issuance of a ticket.”

Orosa also told investigators that Carollo had not asked for any favors.

But the ethics commission concluded that Carollo “clearly intended to use his influence with the police chief to avoid a traffic citation.”

“There was no legitimate reason for Carollo to call the chief of police other than to put into motion a chain of events that Carollo hoped would extricate him from a traffic situation that ordinary citizens find themselves in every day,” the ethics commission wrote.

The complaint against Sarnoff involved a trip he and his wife took to Brazil in April.

The pair went to watch the yachts in the Volvo Ocean Race depart Itajai for Miami, the next port of call. Sarnoff also travelled to Rio and Sao Paulo, with the Convention & Visitors Bureau footing the bill for his travel, lodging and meals.

Sarnoff did not disclose the trip as a gift, nor did he disclose that the Volvo Ocean Race had reimbursed him for his wife’s roundtrip airfare.

Sarnoff said he was acting on advice from Miami City Attorney Julie O. Bru. In a legal opinion, Bru said disclosure was unnecessary because the trip did not constitute a gift, but rather city business.

“I never held this secret,” Sarnoff said. “I did everything I was supposed to do. I talked about it openly.” He described the trip as “105 percent work.”

As for Teresa Sarnoff’s travel expenses, Marc Sarnoff said they, too, were incurred during “official” city business.

“The commissioner was unquestionably assisted in his official duties by Ms. Sarnoff and he quite honestly believed that Ms. Sarnoff was conducting city business,” Sarnoff’s attorney, John Dellagloria, wrote in a response to the ethics commission’s findings.

The ethics commission has said that elected officials don’t have to declare tickets to local events they attend for professional reasons. But according to the final report on the Sarnoff case, “all-expense paid trips to distant and exotic locales deserve different consideration since the grandiose scale of the gift creates a larger appearance of impropriety.”

The ethics commission will send a letter to Sarnoff suggesting he report his wife’s travel expenses as a gift. Another letter will be sent to the Miami city attorney to clarify when business trips must be reported as gifts.

The two complaints were filed last month by blogger Al Crespo.

Sarnoff also took a trip to China this year, where he watched the Miami Heat play a preseason game against the Los Angeles Clippers. In October, Sarnoff said the Heat paid for his flight and hotel. On Wednesday, he said the Shanghai Sports Bureau paid for him and his wife.

He now plans to declare that trip as a gift, he said.

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