Joseph Zadroga, father of fallen 9/11 first responder, fatally struck in N.J.

Joseph Zadroga at a rally for the renewal of the Zadroga Act, named after his late son, James, whose death was attributed to working at Ground Zero after 9/11.

Joseph Zadroga, a tireless warrior for Sept. 11 first responders and the father of the first cop whose death was attributed to a Ground Zero-related illness, was fatally struck by an SUV in New Jersey, officials said Sunday.

“The 9/11 community lost a giant, and Joe has always been a monumental figure to thousands of 9/11 heroes and survivors,” said Sept. 11 survivors advocate John Feal, who shared the news of Zadroga’s death on his Facebook page.

“We’re used to losing people to a 9/11-related cancer or a 9/11-related illness. We’re not used to losing icons in such a horrible fashion,” Feal told the Daily News. “It makes it that much more difficult to accept.”

Zadroga, 76, was standing outside his parked red 2015 Hyundai Tucson at the Bacharach Rehabilitation Center in Galloway, N.J., when 82-year-old James McNeal accelerated as he pulled into a parking space about 2 p.m. on Saturday, according to Galloway Township police.

McNeal struck Zadroga’s vehicle and then the victim, pinning Zadroga under McNeal’s gray 2021 Nissan SUV, police said.

Medics rushed Zadroga to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center Mainland Division, but he could not be saved.

Zadroga was at the rehab center to visit his wife, Feal said.

Zadroga’s son, James, died in January 2006 after a long battle with respiratory disease.

His father battled to get the city to recognize his death as Sept. 11-related, extracting a public apology out of then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg in 2007 — after Bloomberg shockingly said James Zadroga was “not a hero.”

“It was one of the highlights of my legal career, fighting with Joe, and getting the mayor to apologize publicly,” the Zadroga’s family’s lawyer, Michael Barasch of Barasch & McGarry, told The News on Sunday. Barasch has sought compensation for thousands of 9/11 survivors over the years.

“One of the most heartbreaking things that I’ll never forget in my law firm was Jimmy and Joe and Tyler Ann [James Zadroga’s daughter] in my library and Jimmy needed to change his oxygen container,” Barasch recounted Sunday. “And Tyler Ann changed the oxygen for him, said, ‘Daddy, I’ll do it.’ She was 4 at the time. Could you imagine?”

Bloomberg made the caustic comment about James Zadroga after the New York City medical examiner at the time, Charles Hirsch, ruled he died of drug abuse from injecting his prescription medications.

Hirsch’s ruling contradicted the earlier findings of Dr. Gerard Breton, the medical examiner for Ocean County, N.J., who conducted an autopsy and consulted with Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.

The Armed Forces Institute said Zadroga’s lungs had talc, cellulose, methacrylate and calcium phosphate, carbon and silica. Breton concluded Zadroga died of severe scarring of lung tissue and said the cause of death was directly related to 9/11.

The Zadroga family sought a third opinion from Dr. Michael Baden, a renowned expert in forensic pathology, who found large glass fibers, plastic and other materials that would have come from toxic dust in James Zadroga’s lungs.

The Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, named in his honor, became law in 2010.

Joseph Zadroga became an instrumental player in getting the act reauthorized and extended for another 75 years after the GOP-led congress allowed it to lapse.

“It gave Joe a purpose,” Barasch said.  “He was able to really turn his son’s death into a clarion call for justice for the entire 9/11 community.”

“I want to speak to you personally and let you know what it’s like to watch a person die over a five-year period with no support,” Joseph Zadroga said at a news conference in the shadow of One World Trade Center in 2015. “And that’s what’s going to happen if this bill is not passed.”

Benjamin Chevat, the executive director of the Citizens for the Extension of the James Zadroga Act, called Joseph Zadroga “indispensable to the struggle to get 9/11 responders and survivors the help they needed and deserved from Washington.”

“For years he personally gave voice to his son James and the others still dealing with the impact of the  toxins from Ground Zero,” Chevat added.

The push to extend the bill saw a high-profile supporter in comedian and former “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart, who repeatedly shamed members of Congress before it was finally re-authorized in 2015.

“I know Jon loved the family and after getting off the phone with Jon, I could tell he was shaken,” Feal said Sunday.

“Joseph Zadroga took on a fight that no father should have to face. But he fought for his hero son with incredible courage and helped every single 9/11 responder in the process,” Police Benevolent Association president Patrick Hendry said Sunday. “We are devastated to have lost one of the ‘blue family’s’ strongest champions.”

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