Officer Rear-Ended in South Brunswick on Rt. 1 Friday

South Brunswick, NJ - It happened again.

A South Brunswick police officer's squad car was rear-ended at 2:55 p.m. by another driver Friday afternoon on Rt. 1. The officer, Patrolman Morgan, has been taken to a nearby hospital. The accident occurred during regular traffic, not during a traffic stop, police said, and the other driver said he wasn't paying attention.

The accident happened on Rt. 1 southbound at Raymond Road, and traffic is moving slowly in the area because of it. While stopped for a red traffic signal, patrol vehicle 921 was rear-ended by a vehicle operated by Mihir Sinha, 75, of Plainsboro, police said. Sinha reported that he was unaware that the vehicles ahead of him had stopped, and admitted to being distracted just prior to the crash, police said.

Sinha refused medical attention. Ptl. Morgan was transported to Princeton Medical Center for evaluation. Both vehicles were towed from the scene. Sinha was issued a summons for careless driving.

This is not the first time a South Brunswick squad car has been rear-ended in traffic-heavy South Brunswick: In April, a driver rear-ended a police car that had pulled over a tractor trailer on Rt. 130 South between Rt. 522 and Ridge Road.

In that case, both the police officer and the driver had to be hospitalized. Officer Greg Boldizar required 7 stitches due to a head laceration he suffered after that accident. The driver of the car that hit him, a 24-year-old South Brunswick man, had been seen swerving and driving erratically just seconds before the crash. Dash cam video released by police recorded the entire crash. The driver says he has no recollection of what happened. No charges were filed in that incident.

Photos of the squad car in today's crash provided by South Brunswick police