3 Ocean County Highways Among NJ's Deadliest: Report

When 21-year-old Hilario Guillen rear-ended a car on the shoulder of Route 70 in Manchester in April 2016, a crash that ejected him from his car and killed him, he became one of nine people who died in motor vehicle crashes on the road in 2016.

The state highway, which starts in Brielle and runs through Brick, Lakewood, Toms River and Manchester in Ocean County all the way west to Cherry Hill, ranked 11th on a list of the deadliest highways in 2016. The rankings, based on the number of fatalities, were reported by NJ.com.

There were 607 people killed on New Jersey's roads in 2016, up from 562 in 2015, NJ.com reported.

Route 70 is one of three state highways that traverse parts of Ocean County that wound up on the deadliest highways list. Route 35, which runs south from Point Pleasant Beach to the northern tip of Island Beach State Park, was 18th on the list, while Route 9, which had 15 fatalities in 2016, came in fourth.

The Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike were, not surprisingly, the two deadliest highways in the state, according to the NJ.com report.

Route 539, which has been the focus of a pair of special summer traffic enforcement details, did not make the list. Nor did Route 37 in Toms River and Manchester; or Route 72, which runs from Barnegat through Stafford Township to Long Beach Island; or Route 88, which runs through Point Pleasant, Brick and Lakewood.

Route 88 was the scene of a fatal crash Saturday evening, when a man fleeing the scene after rear-ending one car side-swiped an oncoming car and hit the one behind it head-on, Lakewood police said.

Route 70 had just two fatalities in 2015, while Route 9 had 14 and Route 35 had three, according to the report. Read more of the rankings here.

A photo of the Route 70 crash scene where Hilario Guillen of Browns Mills was killed in April 2016. Photo by Manchester Township Police