Driver Arrested After Fleeing Fatal Lakewood Crash: Police

LAKEWOOD, NJ — A Lakewood man has been charged with vehicular homicide after he ran from a crash that killed a passenger in the vehicle he was driving on Sunday night, police said.

Eduardo Paez-Lopez, 22, was driving east on Yale Drive when his vehicle, which appeared to be a pickup truck, failed to negotiate the curve at the end of the street, left the road and hit a tree, Lakewood Detective Lt. Gregory Staffordsmith said Monday.

The crash, which happened shortly before midnight, killed Arcadio Hernandez Marcos, 44, of Lakewood, who was a passenger in the front seat, Staffordsmith said.

After impact, Paez-Lopez and Arturo Barraza, who was sitting in the back seat, fled the scene, but they were later found by patrol officers who responded to the crash, he said.

Further investigation by the Lakewood Traffic Safety Unit, Detective Bureau, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office and the Ocean County Sheriff’s Department CSI Unit resulted in the arrest of Paez-Lopez on charges of vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of an accident causing death. He was subsequently taken to the Ocean County Jail, Staffordsmith said.

Lakewood police car photo by Karen Wall, Patch staff