Passenger Badly Hurt in Nasty Wreck on Route 206

Update, Jan. 6, 2012:

Update, Dec. 28: "Car Crash, Knife Incident Remain Under Investigation"

Update, 10 p.m. Dec. 24:

Lawrence Township Police Lt. Thomas Ritter identified the passenger involved in the crash as Henry Tripp, 38, of Trenton.

He said Tripp underwent emergency surgery at Capital Health System Regional Medical Center and remained in serious condition this evening.

He said police this evening were following several leads to identify and locate the driver of the car, which he said was traveling southbound on Route 206 when it left the roadway and slammed into a large tree.

A passerby who came upon the wreckage called 911, Ritter said.

With regard to the knife-wounding on Catbird Court, Ritter said the incident remains under investigation and no charges had been filed as of this evening.

Original Story, 7:37 a.m. Dec. 24:

A nasty one-car crash early this morning (Saturday, Dec. 24) left a male passenger badly injured and Lawrence Township police searching for the vehicle’s missing driver.

The Christmas weekend accident on Lawrence Road (Route 206) in the area of Concord Avenue was reported to police at 4:33 a.m.

Township police and emergency personnel arrived to find a Pontiac Grand Am sitting in the southbound lane, perpendicular to the route of travel, with its front end mangled. The car was believed to have struck a tree.

A male passenger was "heavily entrapped" in the wreckage and the driver was nowhere to be found.

Volunteer firefighters from Lawrenceville, Lawrence Road and Slackwood fire companies used hydraulic rescue tools to cut away the roof and the front passenger’s side door in an effort to extricate the man.

The man was freed from the wreckage by 5:10 a.m. and was immediately rushed by a Lawrence Township Emergency Medical Service ambulance crew and Capital Health System paramedics to the trauma center at Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton.

The full extent of the man’s injuries was not immediately clear, but emergency officials at the scene said they were potentially life-threatening.

It was also not immediately known if the car’s driver was ejected during the crash, staggered away injured, or fled the scene prior to the arrival of police.

Township officers searched the area without success for the missing driver using flashlights and a police dog.

That area of Route 206 was closed until about 7:30 a.m. because of the accident, with northbound traffic diverted at Franklin Corner Road and southbound traffic detoured at Carter Road.

Due to the severity of the crash, a detective from the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office responded to the scene to assist with the investigation.

The accident was not the only major incident township officers assigned to the overnight shift had to handle this morning.

While police were still searching for the missing driver along Route 206, a 911 call was received about 6:15 a.m. reporting that a female resident of Catbird Court had been injured with a knife, allegedly during a domestic dispute with her boyfriend.

The boyfriend had fled the residence by the time officers arrived. Police set up a perimeter in the area and also used a dog to search for him. The boyfriend was located at a bus stop near Lawrenceville-Pennington Road about 7:15 a.m. and taken into custody for questioning.

The woman, with a laceration to her left wrist, meanwhile was rushed by a Ewing Township ambulance to the Capital Health hospital in Trenton. It was not immediately clear if the woman hurt herself with the knife or if the wound was caused by her boyfriend, officials said.