The New Jersey State Police have identified the victims of the fatal multi-vehicle crash on the Garden State Parkway in Toms River last night – as first reported by TLS.
NJSP tell TLS that Caryn J. Coon, 22, of Forked River, and Lauren J. Maturo, 32, of Syosset, NY, were killed in the crash, which happened at approximately 9:42 PM at milepost 87 on the northbound highway, police said.
According to police, a Genesis passenger vehicle was disabled in the center lane of the highway, and a Freightliner tractor-trailer was stopped behind it in the center lane. Coon, who was driving a Honda, struck the rear of the Freightliner, ran off the road to the right and traveled down a grass embankment. Amanda K. McHenry, 32, of New York, NY, who was driving a Ford SUV with Maturo as her front-seat passenger, then also struck the rear of the Freightliner.
Coon and Maturo sustained fatal injuries. McHenry sustained serious injuries and was transported to an area hospital. The driver of the Freightliner sustained minor injuries, and no other injuries were reported on scene.
The crash remains under investigation.
I’m not blaming anyone, everything may have happened very fast, but you see that stopping in middle of a highway is very dangerous. Such things have happened before – caused pileups, sometimes from weather. Must call the police immediately. Also, some form of flares – and today there are electronic ones – are important. In hindsight, it’s obvious it would have been much better for the truck driver to push that car off the highway than just stopping behind it. He protected them, and I’m not blaming him for what happened – as it’s quite obvious that had he not stopped, there probably would have anyways been the same crashes – and just the people in the car in front would have been badly hurt too. So he definitely minimized injuries/fatalities, but this can be a lesson for future: Get a stopped car in middle of a highway off the highway immediately. (The car could have gone into neutral so he could push them to shoulder.)