Driver Killed In I-78 Overturned Dump Truck Crash Identified

BERKELEY HEIGHTS, NJ — The driver killed in an overturned dump truck crash on Interstate 78 on Monday has been identified.

John Morales, 47, of Guttenberg was identified as the truck driver, said New Jersey State Police Sgt. Alejandro Goez.

On Monday, Oct. 18 at around 2:33 pm., Morales was driving the truck west on I-78 when it had a tire failure at milepost 43.4 in Berkeley Heights, said Goez.

The tire failure caused the truck to cross all the way over the highway into the left lane before hitting a guardrail and overturned, said Goez.

The truck continued into an embankment and a median before continuing into the eastbound lanes of the highway where it stopped, said Goez.

As a result of the crash, Morales sustained fatal injuries, said Goez.

No other vehicles or passengers were involved in the crash.

The left and center lanes on both the west and eastbound sides were closed for four hours.

There was also an extended closure of the left lane on the westbound side for emergency repairs of the guardrail and partial closure of eastbound for removal.

EXPECT DELAYS
I-78 MP 43, Berkley Heights, all EB lanes are closed and the left and center WB lanes are closed as Troopers investigate a fatal motor vehicle crash involving an overturned dump truck. No further information is available at this time.#alert

— NJSP - State Police (@NJSP) October" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/NJSP/statu... 18, 2021

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