Three-Year-Old Girl Is Second Victim In Freehold Township Car Crash

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP, NJ — A car accident here on July 14 has now claimed the life of a 3-year-old girl, as well as that of her 42-year-old mother, authorities have confirmed.

Denise A. James, of the Waretown section of Ocean Township, is the mother of three who died instantly after the crash at around 5 p.m. July 14, the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office has confirmed.

Her daughter had been critically injured and airlifted to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune last Thursday. The prosecutor's office did not release the name of the child, but a GoFundMe site for the family said her name is Lily. Lily died on Sunday, the prosecutor's office confirmed. Two young sons in the car were injured and treated last week but survived, authorities said last week.

The New Jersey Superior Officers Law Enforcement Association is organizing a fundraiser for the James family, said union President Edward Sullivan. The husband of Denise and the father of Lily is Lt. Craig James, a corrections police lieutenant, assigned in a management role at the Avenel Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center, Sullivan said.

"This is the most tragic incident I have ever dealt with," Sullivan said on Monday.

The association supports its members, he said, and regularly will help members with family illness, for example .

But this family tragedy, Sullivan said, "hits close to home."

Sullivan said he is touched by the comments about Denise James on the GoFundMe site.

From what people have said, he learned that Denise James was a nurse who "had a significant impact on people's lives," he said.

One comment came from a woman who said "Denise and I worked together for decades as her Director of Nursing. When Denise received the LPN of the year award given by the New Jersey Director of Nursing of Nursing Administration in April 2018, she was called the 'Angel on Earth' - kind, compassionate loving and great mother and wife."

The Ocean County family is "now planning two funerals, not one," Sullivan said.

To help the family, the fundraising site is requesting donations. It can be accessed at this GoFundMe site.

Sullivan said after Lily was removed from life support the family arranged for organ donation.

Sullivan said he understands the family's two school-age sons ages 13 and 9 are home now.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with Craig, his two boys and his family," the association says on the fundraising page.

The accident July 14 involved three vehicles on a rural road in Freehold Township, authorities said. It happened in the area of Siloam Road and Old Turkey Swamp Road in the township at about 5 p.m., Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey said Friday.

At the scene were a Ford F350 pickup truck driven by a 53-year-old male resident of Little Egg Harbor Township, a Chrysler Pacifica minivan driven by Denise James, and a Honda CR-V SUV driven by a 34-year-old male resident of Jackson Township, the prosecutor's office said.

The preliminary investigation indicates that the pickup truck left the southbound lane of Siloam Road and struck the Honda SUV with a glancing blow before colliding head-on with the minivan immediately thereafter, the news release said. Both surviving drivers remained at the scene, authorities said.

This is the second fatal accident in less then two weeks in Freehold Township. On July 3, a five-car accident on Route 9 claimed three lives of a Marlboro family and left another driver seriously injured.
Another accident on the Garden State Parkway in Aberdeen on Sunday took the lives of three women in their 20s.

The latest accident remains under investigation. Anyone who may have witnessed the collision or has any information about it is urged to contact Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office Det. Nicolas Logothetis at 800-533-7443 or Freehold Township Police Department Det. Lt. Joseph Winowski at 732-294-5139.