AT LEAST 1 DEAD, 45 INJURED IN 20+ VEHICLE PILEUP ON NEW JERSEY TURNPIKE AMID ICY ROAD CONDITIONS AND SPEEDING VEHICLES. FOUR TRACTOR-TRAILERS, TWO BOX TRUCKS AND A FULLY LOADED BUS WERE PART OF THE CRASH.
February
10, 2015
A South
Jersey man died and dozens of other people suffered injuries in a
chain-reaction crash involving 13 vehicles along the New Jersey Turnpike in
Middlesex County Monday night.
At least
one vehicle caught fire.
The pileup
happened on the southbound side of the highway shortly after 9 p.m. local time,
authorities said.
The
accident occurred during a mix of rain and snow flurries and below-freezing
temperatures in Cranbury, a township just southwest of New York City. The
vehicles involved in the crash included several cars, four tractor-trailers,
two box trucks and a fully loaded bus.
The New
Jersey Turnpike Authority told the Associated Press that at least one
tractor-trailer jackknifed near a service area. At least one vehicle was
reported to be on fire.
All
southbound lanes on the Turnpike were closed until further notice.
UPDATE
Darryl Williams of
Bordentown, New Jersey died after becoming entrapped in his Toyota Corolla,
state police said.
Police have not yet
revealed the cause of the accident or if icy road conditions played a role. However, the roads between exits 8 and 8A were
covered with a thin film of ice. Under these
conditions, extreme precaution is required, such as lowering the speed of the
vehicle. Drivers in the NJTP are driving
at very high speeds even in adverse road conditions and a big rig is next to
impossible to stop it on time prior to crashing.
We drove through that are yesterday with no problem, going at a safe speed. A massive pile up like this one is almost always caused by a bad driver going too fast or making a bad maneuver and starting the domino-effect collisions.
The inner roadway
(car lanes) along the southbound lanes had reopened early Tuesday; the outer
roadway remained closed.