1 Killed, 1 Injured In Route 37 Hit-And-Run Crash, Teen Charged

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A Morris County teenager has been charged in a hit-and-run crash on Route 37 Saturday night that killed one person and seriously injured another, authorities said.

Abel Mathukutty, 18, of Lake Hiawatha, was charged with leaving the scene of a motor vehicle crash causing death and with leaving the scene of a motor vehicle crash causing serious bodily injury in the crash that happened just before 7:30 p.m., Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.

The crash happened on the eastbound lanes of Route 37 just west of the Thomas A. Mathis Bridge into Seaside Heights.

The prosecutor's office said the investigation showed Mathukutty was driving an Infiniti sedan and hit the driver's side of a Mercedes sedan. The impact caused the Mercedes to hit a utility pole, authorities said, and Mathukutty took off over the bridge into Seaside Heights, the prosecutor's office said.

The female driver and male passenger were both seriously injured and taken to Community Medical Center in Toms River, where the driver succumbed to her injuries, the prosecutor's office said.

The male passenger was transferred to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune and was listed in critical condition on Sunday, the prosecutor's office said.

The victims were not identified Sunday morning.

A description of the Infiniti was broadcast to surrounding towns, the prosecutor's office said, and Seaside Park police officers pulled over one matching the description about 8 p.m.

Seaside Park police noted the vehicle had sustained heavy passenger side damage and that the airbags in the vehicle had been deployed, and determined it was the Infiniti that had been involved in the Route 37 crash, the prosecutor's office said.

Mathukutty was arrested without incident and taken to the Ocean County Jail in Toms River, where he is being held pending a detention hearing, the prosecutor's office said.