6 Die In Tragic New Year's Week In N.J., Capping Deadly 2016 On Roads

New Jersey had its deadliest year on the roads in a while in 2016 - capped off by a New Year's week in which at least six died tragically in crashes.

New Jersey had 607 fatalities on its roads in 2016, an 8 percent jump over 2015 when there were 562, according to preliminary State Police statistics. In 2015, the increase was 1.1 percent, from 556 deaths.

Six more people were killed and others were seriously injured during a week that saw more tragedy on New Jersey's roadways. Here were some of the tragic accidents that happened over the weekend:

• A teen died when her car struck a tree on a New Jersey roadway, police said, five years after the same tragedy happened to her sister. Services are being arranged for Keely E. Blaney as an outpouring of sorrow has come for the 18-year-old who was called a "gentle soul." The New Jersey woman was driving at 11:22 a.m. on Tuesday morning when her car left Route 625, swerved and struck a tree in the township, according to nj.com. Read more here....
• A New Jersey man was killed in a hit-and-run this week, police said. The 26-year-old man died after he was struck by a vehicle that fled the Newark's ironbound section, officials said Tuesday. Carlos Quezada was hit shortly after 4 a.m. Sunday and later pronounced dead, Essex County Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman Katherine Carter said. We'll have more information when it becomes available. Read more...
• A 14-year-old New Jersey girl was seriously hurt when she was hit by a car while crossing a highway to get on her school bus Tuesday morning, New Jersey State Police said. Police learned that a bus was stopped in the northbound lane with its stop sign out and flashing red lights on, but a 17-year-old boy driving a 1999 Toyota Corolla south failed to stop in time and hit the girl. Read more here...
• A car flipped on the Garden State Parkway on Sunday, causing what one observer called a "terrible accident" and a fire. The accident happened around 12 noon in the Aberdeen-Hazlet area near Exit 119 on the southbound express-lane side. State Police said one person was seriously hurt in the crash, and was transported to Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center. Read more here...

In 2016, a sharp increase in the number of road fatalities involved car drivers, jumping from 276 in 2015 to 333 in 2016, according to the State Police. The number of pedestrians killed dropped from 173 to 166.

The most fatalities happened in Burlington County, with 49. The next was Monmouth, with 46; Middlesex, with 44; and Essex. with 42. Hunterdon had the lowest number, with 10, according to State Police data.

Among those 2016 tragedies was one that was just released on Wednesday: A 19-year-old New Jersey man was recently killed after he slammed into a police car at 70 miles per hour, police said. Israel Velasquez Cruz rear-ended the car of an on-duty officer at East Second Street and Watchung Avenue in Plainfield around 9:25 p.m. on Christmas Eve. Read more here...

Keely Blaney photo: courtesy of Keely Blaney's family/Twitter

Photo/Video courtesy of Elea Tsentzelis ‏@Guywiththehair_