One Teen Killed, Another Injured In Route 539 Crash

One teenager was killed and a second one is hospitalized after their car hit a tractor-trailer along Route 539 in neighboring New Egypt Monday morning, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office said.

The names of the two teens -- a 19-year-old and an 18-year-old -- have not been released. Al Della Fave, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, said the two are from Millstone Township in Monmouth County and were headed to Stockton University in Galloway Township at the time of the crash.

The collision happened just after 10 a.m. about a half-mile north of Route 528, when the car, which was southbound on Route 539, veered into the path of the tractor-trailer, which was northbound, Della Fave said. The impact caused the tractor trailer, which was carrying construction materials, to go off the road hit a tree, he said.

Why the car veered into the path of the truck is not yet known, he said.

The 19-year-old driver was taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune, while the 18-year-old died at the scene, he said.

The driver of the tractor-trailer, a 73-year-old from Allentown, N.J., was taken to a hospital in Hamilton, Della Fave said.

It is the first fatal accident along the road since July along the road, which became the focus of a summer crackdown after a string of 14 serious crashes, including four in a 10-day span with one that killed a man and injured his wife.

The investigation by New Egypt Police Department, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office and Ocean County Sheriff’s Dept CSI is continuing, he said.