Dangers Persist On Road Where Brick Teen Was Hit, Killed, Residents Say

BRICK, NJ — The Brick Township Council introduced an ordinance on Tuesday night to reduce the speed limit on Lanes Mill Road to 35 mph.

The move comes three months after 15-year-old Jackson Mueller was hit and killed as he crossed Lanes Mill Road on his bicycle on the way to school, and two weeks before school begins for the 2026-27 school year.

Jackson was in a crosswalk at Rhode Island Avenue when he was hit about 6:50 a.m. on May 19. The driver, who has not been identified by authorities because he was 17 at the time of the crash, was traveling at high speed and left the scene after hitting Jackson, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said.

The driver was charged with knowingly leaving the scene of a motor vehicle crash resulting in death, and the case has remained in the juvenile courts.

In the wake of Jackson's death, residents have been clamoring for changes to address longstanding safety issues along Lanes Mill Road, which is lined by homes and three of the Brick Township School District's schools.

The road, which has been 40 mph for decades, is controlled by Ocean County, which will have the final say on the speed limit reduction. Officials said the 35 mph was the reduction the county agreed to accept. It will go into effect after the council takes a final vote on the ordinance at the next meeting, on Sept. 8, and is officially published. The county road department will have to install new signs with the lowered speed.

While the lower speed limit is a tangible step, residents who live on Lanes Mill and neighboring streets told the council and town officials it wasn't enough.

Cindy Patterson, who has lived on Lanes Mill Road just north of Herbertsville School for more than 40 years, said issues she and other residents raised in May and June still haven't been fixed.

"The school zone lights still don't work," she said, referring to signs with lights that flash when school is in session.

Drivers are speeding well above the current limit of 40 mph, she said. "I hear them floor their cars to make the light at Herbertsville (Road)."

Patterson said there also are drivers who pass stopped school buses, sometimes passing them on the shoulder and in spite of them being stopped to pick up students.

She repeated concerns she had expressed in June about drivers passing school buses on the right — particularly dangerous to students who are getting on or off buses.

There are crosswalks, but no crossing guards from just past the northeast parking lot at Brick Memorial until you get to Herbertsville School. That includes the crosswalk at Rhode Island Avenue, where Jackson was hit.

There also are stretches along the north side of the road that lack sidewalks, which leaves students to walk in the grass or on the shoulder of the road until they can cross at a crosswalk, if they dare.

The concerns about safety along Lanes Mill Road have persisted for years, and many parents have driven their children to school — a practice that has increased since Jackson's death.

Patterson urged the town to add more crossing guards, specifically at the intersection of Herbertsville and Lanes Mill roads, a busy crosswalk used by parents who park at the nearby Epiphany Church lot and walk their children to the preschool program at Herbertsville School.

"Just (making the speed limit) 35 is not going to make it better," Patterson said. "It can't end there."

Joe Roeder, who lives off Lanes Mill Road, said the speed limit ought to be lowered to 25 mph for the entire length of the road all year long.

"People drive too fast down that road," he said. But Roeder acknowledged that just lowering the speed limit only does so much.

"It's going to come down to enforcement," he said.

Mayor Lisa Crate acknowledged the concerns and the frustrations and tried to assure residents that steps are being taken.

The existing school zone signs are so old they could not get parts, so they are being replaced, she said. The town has ordered them, but as of Tuesday night they had not arrived. Once they arrive, the town has to have the Ocean County Road Department install the signs, because Lanes Mill is a county road.

"It's not as seamless as it should be," she said.

The issue of installing sidewalks is complicated as well, Crate said, because part of the area in need is along the baseball fields across from Brick Memorial High School. That property was purchased with Green Acres funding, which has created some obstacles that the town is trying to solve as it pursues some kind of walking path that will allow students to walk all the way to Brick Memorial, where there is a crossing guard, before crossing Lanes Mill.

Adding crossing guards could be a tall task, Councilman Gregory Cohen said. Cohen, who sits on the township's public safety committee, said there is a shortage of crossing guards all over, with few applicants.

Both Crate and Cohen said they have had discussions with Acting Police Chief Henry Drew about heightened enforcement, and said Drew has made changes to increase patrols to try to deter speeding not only along Lanes Mill but near the district's other nine schools.

Crate said that enforcement will be in place again when the new school year begins on Thursday, Sept. 3.

It's unclear whether the school zones will be extended. Currently three zones are in place along Lanes Mill Road. They start 2oo feet in either direction from Lanes Mill Elementary, Brick Memorial High School and Herbertsville School. Drivers go from 40 to 25 to 40 to 25 again in rapid succession with Lanes Mill Elementary and Brick Memorial, but the stretch from Brick Memorial to Herbertsville School is about a mile long and straight, making it easy to speed even for drivers not pushing the limit.

Residents have asked in the past about extending the school zones at Lanes Mill and Brick Memorial to make it seamless. According to the state Department of Transportation guide on creating school zones, there are no set maximum distances.

"The speed limit in NJ, unless otherwise posted, is 25 mph when passing through a school zone (N.J.S.A. 39:4-98). Therefore, many school speed limit zones may be as short as 400 ft. However, the beginning and end points of a school speed limit zone should be determined based on the location of other traffic control devices, features and locations where children cross the roadway," the guide says.

Speed humps or speed tables are not a consideration because Lanes Mill is a direct route for ambulances traveling to Ocean University Medical Center.

Previous reporting:

'It Shouldn't Have Happened': Neighbors Press For Safety As Brick Teen's Family Seeks New Law

New Signs, Strict Traffic Enforcement Roll Out As Brick Responds To Boy's Death

Brick Boy’s Death Sparks Push For Safety Changes

Community Envelopes Brick Memorial Teen's Mourning Family

Vigil Set For Brick Memorial Student Killed In Crash

Teen Charged With Hit-And-Run In Crash That Killed Brick Memorial Student