NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ–At 11:38pm last night, a marked police vehicle and another vehicle were involved in a bad crash in the city’s First Ward that left one person trapped inside a totalled Nissan Altima.
Police radio transmissions suggest the supervisor behind the wheel of NBPD unit #904, a Dodge Charger, and may have been en route to reports of a man with a gun, and subsequently reports of a man with a knife walking around in the Gardens at Raritan apartment complex.
Preliminary evidence suggests that the police car struck a brick wall after colliding with a Nissan Altima near the intersection of Paulus Boulevard and Route 18.
Residents said that the police officer must not have seen the Altima while crossing the large highway. Â A man from Bordentown was behind the wheel of that vehicle and accompanied by a male passenger from New Brunswick.
“A car was side swipe from the police car because the police car made a turn and did not [see] the car,” said one resident of the neighborhood.
Another resident said that the Altima was missing its “whole front end up to the windshield.”
Police on the scene said that it “was an [Nissan] Altima,” and that the city’s Fire Department was needed to rescue a person trapped inside.
Both vehicles were towed away and it is not known what condition the drivers, or the one passenger of the Altima are in.
police and city officials did not respond to formal requests for information about the crash, though one officer confirmed there was “an accident” involving unit #904, and said that all involved were “okay.”
The NBPD contacted the Department of Transportation to request sand at 12:29 am, and reported that two lanes of the highway were closed due to the accident investigation.
Unit #904 was left near the entrance to the Department of Public Works building at 400 Jersey Avenue.
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.
