PA U-Haul Driver Charged in Death of Edison Man

Edison, NJ - A Pennsylvania man was arrested Tuesday because police said he was under the influence of drugs when, while driving a rented U-Haul, he crossed over the yellow lines into oncoming traffic and killed a man this past spring in Edison Township, in an accident Patch reported on the day it happened, Tuesday, April 5.

John T. O’Donnell Sr., 57, of Nazareth, Pa., was charged with death by auto for the April 5 death of Marcus Scroggins, 33, of Edison, Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey said.

O’Donnell surrendered to authorities during an investigation by Detective Loren Long of the Edison Police Department and Detective Donald Heck of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.

The investigation determined that O’Donnell was driving a U-Haul rental box truck and was heading north on Rt. 27 in Edison when he crossed into on-coming traffic at 1:47 p.m. that day.

The box truck initially side-swiped a 1999 Ford Explorer. The driver of the Explorer was injured, but he declined medical treatment.

O’Donnell continued on the wrong side of the road and crashed head-on into a 1997 Pontiac Grand Am driven by Scroggins. The box truck pushed the Pontiac about 100 feet before stopping at the Division Street intersection.

Emergency medical technicians arriving at the scene noted that O’Donnell was under the influence of narcotics and treated him with an opiate antidote commonly known as Narcan, said Chief Thomas Bryan of the Edison Police Department.