Fatal Route 539 Crash Prompts Call For Help, Warning From Prosecutor's Office

In the wake of at least four accidents in the last week along Route 539 between Lacey Township and Manchester Township, including one that killed a Robbinsville man, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office has a plea:

“People have to drive responsibly,” said Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.

Della Fave said the prosecutor’s office is looking for any information on the identity of the driver of a maroon car that was involved in a fatal crash that occurred on Tuesday.

That crash, on the Lacey portion of Route 539, killed Joseph Matthews of Robbinsville and injured Matthews’ wife, Nancy, Della Fave said.

“According to several witnesses, prior to the crash, a maroon colored vehicle was seen traveling northbound on Route 539, passing numerous vehicles including several vehicles at a single time,” Della Fave said in a news release. “Just prior to the crash, this vehicle was seen cutting in front of Matthew’s vehicle, causing him to swerve into oncoming traffic. This vehicle is being considered a contributing factor to the crash.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Michael Proto of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office’s Vehicular Homicide Unit at (732) 929-2027 ext. 3144 or Lacey Patrolman Michael Verwey at (609) 693-6636.

In the wake of the fatal crash -- the fourth in the span of a week and the fourth with serious injuries since mid-June -- residents and readers have commented on the situation, several expressing concerns about the dangers of driving Route 539, particularly with aggressive drivers.

Della Fave said aggressive driving is the biggest problem along Route 539, with drivers too often passing other vehicles -- sometimes multiple ones -- because the drivers are so impatient.

“It’s an issue that the police can’t fix, that DOT (the Department of Transportation) can’t fix,” he said. “People have to drive responsibly.”

“This one (the fatal July 7 crash) was totally preventable,” he said. But with the increase in summer traffic -- and the increase in impatience among drivers, the crash that killed Matthews “won’t be the first and it won’t be the last.”

Motorists are generally already above the speed limit on the road, Della Fave said, meaning that someone who is trying to pass -- particularly passing multiple vehicles “has to goose it up to 70, 80 miles an hour to do it (make the pass).”

“It’s aggressive, it’s irresponsible and it’s going to cause more fatalities,” he said.

Police said that kind of aggressive driving was the root of the Fourth of July crash on Route 539 that sent six people to the hospital. A 24-year-old Paterson man who was northbound on the road attempted to pass several cars by moving over to the southbound lane and struck a Chevy Trailblazer head-on, police said.

On June 17 a Little Egg Harbor woman and a Jackson man both wound up hospitalized after the woman’s car crossed into the path of the dump truck driven by the Jackson man. It was not clear whether improper passing was involved in that crash.

Information on the circumstances of two other crashes on the road, including one Wednesday morning between a tractor and a minivan in the Jackson Township portion of the road that sent two people to the hospital, was not immediately available.