Pickup Driver With Suspended License Hits E-Scooter On Route 88 In Brick, Prosecutor Says

BRICK, NJ — A Toms River man has been charged with driving under the influence in a Route 88 crash that seriously injured a Brick Township man on an electric scooter Thursday night, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said Friday.

Lloyd W. Ferrara, 30, was driving with a suspended license and had fictitious license plates on his pickup truck at the time of the crash, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.

The 40-year-old man who was riding the scooter was knocked off it and dragged a short distance under Ferrara's pickup, authorities said. He was listed in serious but stable condition at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, the prosecutor's office said.

The crash happened about 10:15 p.m. on Route 88 near Jack Martin Boulevard, authorities said. Ferrara was driving west on Route 88 in a 1988 Ford pick-up truck when he tried to make a right-hand turn into a convenience store parking lot, authorities said. The pickup truck failed to yield to the electric scooter, which was traveling east on Route 88, causing a head-on collision, authorities said.

Investigators learned Ferrara was driving with a suspended driver’s license at the time of the crash, and the license plates on the pick-up truck were fake, and they saw that Ferrara appeared to be intoxicated, authorities said.

Officers tried to administer the standardized field sobriety tests to Ferrara, who failed the tests. He was taken to Ocean University Medical Center in Brick Township and a sample of his blood was drawn pursuant to a court-authorized warrant, authorities said.

The results of the blood draw remain pending.

Ferrara has been charged with operating a motor vehicle with a suspended driver’s license while involved in a motor vehicle crash resulting in serious bodily injury in addition to the charge of driving under the influence, the prosecutor's office said. He is being held at the Ocean County Jail pending a detention hearing.