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

BRICK, NJ — It's 7:15 a.m. on a Thursday morning, and already cars are lining up at Herbertsville School, waiting for the 8 a.m. student dropoff.

Vehicles zip by along Lanes Mill Road, some clearly above the 40-mph speed limit even as they pass through the school zone in front of the school, where drivers are supposed to slow to 25 mph.

Speeding is one of the biggest problems along Lanes Mill Road, residents say. It was a speeding car that struck and killed Brick Memorial freshman Jackson Mueller as he rode his bicycle to school on May 19.

The mile-long stretch of Lanes Mill Road between Herbertsville Road and Brick Memorial High School is straight and wide. It's easy to creep above the speed limit even if you're watching your speed.

Many see the stretch as an invitation to push the accelerator, especially those rushing to get through their days; the engines rev loudly as trucks, SUVs, cars and even a school bus speed up on this school day.

It's a continual frustration for Cindy and Andy Patterson, who live on Lanes Mill Road.

"We've been fighting for changes for more than 30 years," Patterson said as she watched drivers zoom past her home, seemingly oblivious to the school zone and the speed limit in particular. Her children attended Herbertsville School back in the late 1980s and 1990s, and she and her husband, Andy, tried repeatedly to get safety issues addressed.

Jackson Mueller's death, which has shaken the entire community, shouldn't have happened, Patterson said.

"This could have possibly been avoided if something had been done way back then," she said. "They didn't hear us then. Maybe they will hear us now."

Justice for Jackson

In the five weeks since Jackson Mueller was killed, there have been multiple discussions about what needs to change to try to prevent a similar tragedy in the future. Among them is one about ways to deter teenage drivers from leaving the scene of a crash.

The 17-year-old who was driving the 2021 BMW that hit Jackson Mueller as he crossed in the crosswalk at Rhode Island Avenue has been charged with knowingly leaving the scene of a motor vehicle crash causing death. Because he is 17, authorities have not identified him and the charge is being handled in the juvenile portion of the justice system.

That factor has angered Jackson's family and friends, who believe the driver should be facing charges in adult court because he left the scene.

Video that circulated on social media showed the driver and his passenger get out of the car after the driver pulled over on a side street a couple of blocks from where he hit and killed Jackson. The car had significant damage to the front end and the windshield, and the driver's response, seen as showing more concern for the car than for Jackson, fueled anger.

According to friends of the Mueller family, the driver was held for a few days at the Ocean County Juvenile Detention Center but then released to await further court action. When the case works its way through the courts, it's likely the driver will face little jail time as long as it remains in the juvenile justice system.

That prospect angers Jackson's family and friends, and as a result, they have begun pushing for a law to make anyone 17 or older charged in a fatal hit-and-run face charges in adult court.

Sen. Jim Holzapfel, who represents Brick as part of the 10th District, has agreed to draft and sponsor the bill, which was still being finalized as of June 22.

The goal is to strengthen accountability and deter hit-and-run behavior and improve driver education about the legal consequences of committing hit-and-run offenses.

"Jackson was a 15-year-old kid with his whole life ahead of him — full of dreams, friends, and promise," said Ernie Boss, a family friend and the administrator of the Facebook group Justice for Jackson. "He was simply riding his bike to school when someone took that future away and chose to drive off. Jackson’s Law is about making sure no other family has to go through what we have. It’s about accountability for those who flee instead of doing the right thing."

A spokesperson for Holzapfel's office said the draft of the bill is expected to be ready by early July.

Boss said the family is not waiting for the formal introduction to push for support, and a petition is live seeking signatures to support the law.

"We are demanding Jackson’s Law — so that anyone 17 and older who flees a fatal hit-and-run faces full adult consequences," the petition notes. "No more waivers. No more leniency."

Whose responsibility?

Like many towns in Ocean County, the roads in Brick Township are not solely the responsibility of the town. Some are controlled by the town, while others are controlled by the county or the state.

Lanes Mill Road — along with Herbertsville Road and Burnt Tavern Road — is a county road. That means while Brick Township officials can petition the county to lower the speed limit or make other changes, the decision ultimately belongs to the county.

All three of those roads — and a number of county-controlled roads in Ocean — run through residential neighborhoods. At least two-thirds of Lanes Mill is lined by single-family homes. There are parks nearby, and there is a baseball complex that sits across from Brick Memorial that is busy from the spring into the fall.

At the June 9 Brick Township Council meeting, Ocean County Commissioners Jennifer Bacchione and Ray Gormley, along with county Business Administrator Michael Fiure and county Engineer Mark Jehnke listened as residents spoke about the speed limit along Lanes Mill and the impact of Jackson's death.

One woman said she and her family had known Jackson since he and her daughter were young. He would ride his bike to school daily, and as he passed their home, they knew it was time to get to school.

"I saw Jackson that morning," just minutes before he was killed, the woman said, her voice choked with emotion. "We shouldn't be scared for our kids going to school. I shouldn't have to drive my high schooler to school like a preschooler."

Another mother mentioned that the speed limit along Van Zile Road, another county road that also is primarily residential, had been lowered in recent years.

"If it can be 35 (mph) on Van Zile Road, why can't we get down to 30 or 35 on Lanes Mill?" one mother asked. "It (speeding) is a problem all the time."

The Pattersons were there, too, and said they have been trying to get the speed limit addressed for years.

"Our kids were almost run over years ago," Cindy Patterson said. "There's been so many accidents." She invited the commissioners and Fiure and Jehnke to come see the speeding and dangerous driving for themselves.

Bacchione expressed condolences on Jackson's death to the audience, which included his mother, Kim, who was surrounded by friends.

She and Fiure promised to work with Brick Mayor Lisa Crate and other township officials, along with the Brick Township School District, to address the safety issues. A meeting was scheduled for June 25 involving Ocean County and Brick Township and Brick Schools officials.

Brenn Swanson lives next door to the Pattersons and said she has been in the ear of every official she could think of, but at every turn was hearing that some other entity had the responsibility.

She was blunt in her comments to the county officials.

"It can't be pass the buck any more," Swanson said. "We need a solution. I plead that you will actually do something now."

Safe places to walk

One of the biggest complaints, next to speeding, is a lack of sidewalks along portions of Lanes Mill Road. The patchwork forces students to either walk in the grass next to a very narrow shoulder, or cross the street repeatedly to get to school.

Cindy Patterson's home is on the same side of the road as Herbertsville School. When her children were little, she walked them through the wet grass, even though under the rules she was expected to cross the street with them and use the existing sidewalk, then cross Lanes Mill a second time to get to the school.

Crossing twice was a risk she was unwilling to take, even back in the early 1990s. The principal back then wasn't supposed to permit it, Cindy said. "I told him I'd rather they came to school with wet shoes."

In 2012, sidewalks were installed along the state streets portion of Lanes Mill Road as part of the Safe Routes to School Program, paid for with grants. There also were upgrades at Lanes Mill Elementary School.

But the sidewalks have not been a complete solution, because in winters with heavy snowstorms such as happened in January and February this year, sidewalks remained snow-covered — in spite of ordinances that require homeowners to clear them. That meant older students walked to school in the road, because there was nowhere to go.

Crosswalks also have been installed at several intersections, and by law drivers are supposed to stop for pedestrians in a crosswalk.

Most people who live along or near Lanes Mill Road don't tempt fate, however, and wait until the coast is clear to cross.

Brick Township officials are trying to tackle the pedestrian safety issues on multiple fronts. On Tuesday night, the Township Council was scheduled to vote on a pair of resolutions to further that end.

One would have the township adopt Complete Streets policies, which are designed to improve safety for everyone using the roads, including bicyclists and pedestrians. The other would create a Vision Zero committee, with the goal of eliminating pedestrian fatalities in Brick by 2030.

Complete Streets is a policy through the state Department of Transportation, and includes varying levels of what can be done based on the needs of the situation being addressed. (Read it here.)

Vision Zero is a national program that aims to eliminate traffic fatalities of all types through what it describes as "a fundamentally different way to approach traffic safety."

Both programs are stepping stones to accessing grant money to pay for infrastructure improvements, including sidewalks, crosswalks and bicycle lanes.

Neighboring Point Pleasant adopted Complete Streets policies in 2017. The borough has seen nearly $6 million in improvements since then — some through grants, some in a direct project by the state Department of Transportation — including sidewalks, bicycle lanes and crosswalks along the borough's portion of Herbertsville Road, River Road, and Bridge Avenue, and work along Route 88 in the borough. More than $750,000 was directed to sidewalks to make it safer for students to walk to Ocean Road School.

That funding was life-changing for the borough, which never would have been able to afford those improvements — including one along county-controlled stretches — on its own, Mayor Robert Sabosik and Point Pleasant Borough Administrator Frank Pannucci said.

The state doles out millions in road grants yearly through its Municipal Aid program, including funding for pedestrian safety. In the 2025-26 budget year, Ocean County towns received more than $10 million in grants for road projects — Mantoloking received more than $300,000 specifically for pedestrian safety improvements.

There also are Safe Routes to School grants, which many towns across New Jersey have used to help put in sidewalks and pedestrian crossings.

The Brick Township Council postponed votes on the two resolutions Tuesday as council members sought additional information about the two programs and expressed concerns about what they would mean for Brick residents and taxpayers.

Councilwoman Lisa Reina said one of the descriptions raised a concern about the potential for red-light cameras. Brick Township installed them in 2012, and yanked them just two years later, when John Ducey took office as mayor. Township Attorney Kevin Starkey said red-light cameras are no longer legal in New Jersey.

Councilman Greg Cohen raised concerns about the possibility that Brick would get stuck footing the bill for sidewalks along county roads, and said he believes Ocean County should be responsible.

The council is likely to reconsider the resolutions at its next meeting, in July.

Changing behavior

On June 11, as Cindy Patterson and Brenn Swanson stood in front of Patterson's home, both acknowledge that driver behavior is the biggest hurdle in making it safer not only for children going to and from school, but even for families out for a stroll in their neighborhood, children riding bikes with friends and other everyday activities.

For nearly two hours on that Thursday morning traffic flowed past the Pattersons' home. Without a radar device it was impossible to tell how many drivers were speeding, but with some it was obvious.

At least five drivers made K-turns in the middle of Lanes Mill Road near the Herbertsville intersection to line up for student drop-off at Herbertsville School.

"This is a calm day, wouldn't you say?" Cindy Patterson said Brenn Swanson.

A white car moving along at a good clip slowed as it approached the red traffic signal at Herbertsville Road, then after a very brief pause, made the right turn onto Herbertsville Road in spite of the sign saying "No Turn On Red."

It's a common occurrence, they said, especially in the afternoon when the high school is dismissing for the day and parents are shuffling children to other activities after school.

Another common occurrence, Patterson and Swanson said, is drivers ignoring the school buses' stop arms and lights when they are dropping off students.

"People run the (buses') red lights all the time," Swanson said, a problem Brick Township bus drivers have spoken about frequently both publicly and in private messages to Patch.

There was a school bus in the area when Jackson Mueller was hit, but authorities have not said whether it was stopped picking up students or whether it was passed by the driver who hit Jackson.

Authorities have said only that the BMW was traveling "at high speed."

Acting Police Chief Henry Drew told residents he had ordered patrol officers to increase enforcement around the schools to get people to slow down.

There also have been efforts to install additional "Pedestrian Crossing" signs and to fix some of the School Zone lights that are supposed to flash and remind drivers to slow down, but the ones at Herbertsville School still were not operating on June 11. Some drivers only slowed down when the realized they were being filmed.

It's unclear whether the school zones will be extended. Currently three zones, each starting about 2oo feet from the respective schools, are in place, but 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.

Other options to control speeding — beyond strict enforcement and reducing the speed limit entirely — are not immediately clear.

Patterson said Commissioner Ray Gormley and Jehnke, the county engineer, did come to her house to observe traffic in the early afternoon on June 10, but there wasn't much for them to see because it was during a lull before schools let out for the day.

Patterson and Swanson said they hope the attention will prevent any other deaths. When they pushed the county to address the issues at the Lanes Mill and Herbertsville intersection, nothing substantive was done until there had been three deaths.

"All these years we've tried to get something done," Patterson said. "(Jackson) shouldn't have had to die."

Previous reporting:

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

Vigil Set For Brick Memorial Student Killed In Crash

Community Envelopes Brick Memorial Teen's Mourning Family

Brick Boy’s Death Sparks Push For Safety Changes