Pickup Driver's Blood Alcohol Was Triple Legal Limit In Brick Crash, Prosecutor Says

BRICK, NJ — A pickup truck driver who hit a man on an electric scooter in Brick in January has been charged with assault by auto after lab results showed his blood alcohol levels were at three times the legal limit at the time of the crash, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said Wednesday.

Lloyd W. Ferrara, 30, of Toms River, was served Tuesday with the assault by auto charge, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.

Ferrara initially was arrested in the Jan. 15 crash on charges of driving on a suspended license and having fake license plates on his truck at the time of the crash, which happened about 10:15 p.m. on Route 88 near Jack Martin Boulevard, authorities said.

The scooter rider, a 40-year-old man from Brick, was hospitalized at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune with serious injuries but has since been released, the prosecutor's office said.

Tests on Ferrara's blood, drawn at Ocean University Medical Center in Brick under a warrant following the crash, showed he had a blood alcohol concentration of .247, more than three times the 0.08 limit at which a driver is considered intoxicated, the prosecutor's office said.

In addition, "Ferrara’s blood was found to contain traces of marijuana, and that he was unfit to operate a motor vehicle at the time of the crash," the prosecutor's office said.

Authorities say the crash happened when Ferrara, driving west on Route 88 in a 1988 Ford pickup truck, 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.

The 40-year-old man riding the e-scooter was knocked off it and dragged a short distance under Ferrara's pickup, authorities said.

Officers saw that Ferrara appeared to be intoxicated and tried to administer the standardized field sobriety tests, but Ferrara failed them, authorities said. He was then taken for the blood draw.

Ferrara initially was charged with operating a motor vehicle with a suspended driver’s license while involved in a motor vehicle crash resulting in serious bodily injury and a motor vehicle violation of driving under the influence, the prosecutor's office said.

He was taken to the Ocean County Jail but later released under bail reform rules. Ferrara surrendered to Brick Township police to be served with the assault by auto summons, authorities said.