Dump Truck Slams Car on Middlesex Road and No One is Injured

A Matawan couple were counting themselves lucky to be alive Saturday afternoon after a dump truck loaded with top soil slammed into their car on Middlesex Road, sending it sliding onto a nearby front lawn. Neither the couple nor the truck driver were injured, police said.

Kimberly Daly and her husband Nicholas Nellegar, of 33 Fierro Lane, said they were driving west on the winding two-lane street at 3:12 pm when the dump truck rounded a curve in the road, heading right at them.

Ms. Daly, who was driving the couple's 2009 Toyota Corolla, said she squeezed as far to the right as possible in an effort to avert the oncoming truck. Her husband, who was in the front passenger seat, said, "We were as close to the curb as we could get but he (the truck driver) came over the center line right into us."

The couple said the truck struck the front of their car on the driver's side and began pushing it across the road. Ms. Daly, who said she had been driving under the 25-mile-per-hour speed limit because of the curves and poor visibility along the route, said that after the impact, "We were going about 45 miles an hour going backward. 

"Then he (the truck driver) hit a tree and flipped over," she said.

The tree was on the front lawn of a home at 16 Middlesex Road, where the overturned truck began leaking diesel fuel which started seeping down an embankment toward the front of the house, according to a neighbor, Michael Milano of 59 Middlesex Road. He said he had been outside in front of his own home, across the street, decorating for Christmas.

But the immediate concern of Milano and other residents along the residential street was the condition of those in the car and truck.

According to Sgt. Patrick J. Walker of the Matawan Police Department, the driver of the truck was Michael J. Rusignuolo, 53 of Union Beach. He was already out of his truck and standing up by the time Milano and others approached the vehicle.

"He had kicked out the windshield," Milano said, explaining that he next turned toward the car, which had come to a stop on a front lawn nearby. "The lady in the car had gotten out," he said, and her husband was also out and chasing the couple's frightened dog, which had also been in the car. Milano said he helped Nellegar recover the dog, which Nellegar described as a "shepherd lab mix."

More than a dozen other residents of the street had also come out of their homes to help, including one woman who later brought out a pot of coffee and offered some to Daly and Nellegar as they waited for their car to be towed.

"All the neighbors over here have been fantastic," Nellegar said, adding that several had helped his wife from the car immediately after the crash.

The accident brought a quick and substantial response by the Matawan Police Department, the Matawan Fire Department, Matawan First Aid and the Matawan Water Department. A hazmat unit also responded due to the leaking diesel fuel, which inititally appeared to threaten not only the nearby house but the small creek running behind it. Sgt. Walker said the spill posed no danger to the public.

The road was closed between Rt. 34 and Ravine Drive for more than two hours.

Middlesex Road, a narrow and winding residential street, is the scene of too many close calls, Milano said, because so many drivers ignore the 25 mile-per-hour limit. "They come speeding through here and sometime I'll yell at them but they just keep going," he said. "We afraid to let our kids play out front."

No charges have been filed in the accident, Sgt. Walker said Saturday night, but anyone with information about it is asked to contact Patrolman Christopher Stark, who is handling the investigation. He can be reached at 732-566-1010.