CRANBURY, NJ—At approximately 1 am this morning, a vehicle transporting actor Tracy Morgan from a comedy show in Delaware was involved in a tragic crash on the New Jersey Turnpike.

According to the State Police and Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, a 62-year-old passenger in the vehicle, James McNair of Peekskill, New York, was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:53 a.m.

The four other passengers, including Morgan, were taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick. Morgan and a 36-year-old man from Shelton, Connecticut were transported by helictopter to the New Brunswick hospital.

Today, authorities charged a 35-year-old tractor trailer driver named Kevin Roper, of Jonesboro, Georgia, with one count of death by auto and four counts of assault by auto in the “multi-vehicle crash.”

Bail was set at $50,000 for the tractor-trailer driver, who is expected to surrender.

“A preliminary investigation determined that the tractor-trailer crashed into the van, a 2012 Mercedes Sprinter, as both vehicles traveled in the northbound lanes of the New Jersey Turnpike,” reads the latest Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office (MCPO) statement.

“Four other vehicles subsequently were involved in the crash. None of the occupants of those vehicles was injured.”

Morgan, age 45, the Connecticut man, and another passenger, a 43-year-old man from Jersey City, remain in critical condition according to the MCPO.  The remaining passenger in the was treated at the hospital and was released.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation, according to the MCPO.

Anyone with information is asked to call the New Jersey State Police Detective Bureau at the Troop D Station in Cranbury at (732) 609-860-9000, extension 4400.

Editor at New Brunswick Today | 732-993-9697 | editor@newbrunswicktoday.com | Website

Charlie is the founder and editor of New Brunswick Today, and the winner of the Awbrey Award for Community-Oriented Local Journalism. He is a proud Rutgers University journalism graduate, a community organizer, and a former independent candidate for mayor of New Brunswick.

Charlie is the founder and editor of New Brunswick Today, and the winner of the Awbrey Award for Community-Oriented Local Journalism. He is a proud Rutgers University journalism graduate, a community organizer, and a former independent candidate for mayor of New Brunswick.