Four People Injured As Crash Shuts Down Route 34, Police Say

Four people were injured Friday morning in a four-vehicle collision that shut down Route 34 for four hours, Wall Township police said.

A Wall Township couple, a man from Dingman’s Ferry, Pa., and a Swedesboro woman all were taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune, after the crash, which happened about 11:45 a.m., Wall Police Chief Robert Brice said.

The collision, at the intersection of Route 34 and Belmar Boulevard, resulted in both the north and southbound lanes of Route 34 being closed while the crash was investigated and cleaned up, tying up traffin in the area well into the rush hour, according to police and witnesses.

Brice said the crash occurred when a 2016 Kenworth dump truck driven by a 49-year-old Dingman’s Ferry man hit the rear of a 2012 Hyundai Elantra, driven by the 41-year-old Swedesboro woman, who was stopped on Route 34 northbound at the intersection for a red traffic signal.

The force of the impact pushed the Hyundai into the intersection, along with the dump truck, Brice said, where they collided with a 2004 Dodge Ram pickup driven by a Wall Township man, age 50. His wife, 49, was a passenger in the pickup truck, which was eastbound on Belmar Boulevard at the time of the crash, he said.

That impact sent the Dodge into a 2012 Kenworth roll-off style truck that was stopped to head west on Belmar Boulevard, Brice said. The driver of the roll-off truck, a 25-year-old Lawrenceville man, was not injured, Brice said.

The Wall couple had to be extricated from the pickup truck members of the Glendola Fire Department and they were taken to the hospital by Wall Township First Aid and Wall Township EMS, he said.

The crash was investigated by the Wall Township Police Department, Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, New Jersey State Police Commercial Vehicle Inspection Unit and the Monmouth County Serious Collision Analysis Response Team (SCART). The New Jersey Department of Transportation Emergency Response Unit also responded to the scene, Brice said.