Two Soldiers Remain Critical After Humvee Flips on NJ Turnpike

South Brunswick, NJ - Two soldiers with the U.S. Army Reserves remain in critical, but stable condition Friday after their Humvee flipped over on the N.J. Turnpike southbound near Exit 8A in South Brunswick Thursday afternoon.

Four soldiers total inside the Humvee were seriously injured when the military vehicle flipped over in the southbound lanes of the Turnpike, Capt. Stephen Jones with the New Jersey State Police told Patch. Witnesses to the crash said they saw one of the tires break off the axle and that's what caused it to flip, but State Police could not confirm that.

The most seriously injured, a 25-year-old female soldier, had to be airlifted to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick. She remains there in critical but stable condition.

The soldiers have been identified as Gedry Concepcion-Munuz, 29, from the Bronx, as the driver; front seat passenger Theodore Jackson, 40, from Lincoln Park, NJ and rear seat passengers Marcos Santana, 34, of Poughkeepsie, NY and Deborah Perez, 25, of Brooklyn. Perez and another man were the most critically injured, Jones said.

Witnesses driving past on the Turnpike said they saw three of the soldiers pinned under the Humvee after it flipped. Michael Watsey, a driver who stopped to help, said on Twitter that people tried to lift the Humvee off the soldiers but it was too heavy.

All the soldiers were based at Fort Totten in Queens, said Jones, and that's where they were driving from on Thursday. They were in a caravan of three Humvees headed south on the Turnpike and only one Humvee flipped. He did not know where they were going.

"The Humvee is being evaluated by military mechanics right now to see what exactly caused the crash," he said. "It's too early to tell right now."

Photo: The soldiers pinned under the Humvee after the crash Thursday, taken by Michael Watsey via Twitter.