Teen Driver Was Speeding In Fatal 2022 Freehold Twp. Crash: Prosecutor

FREEHOLD, NJ — A teenager has been charged with vehicular homicide in a car crash that claimed the lives of two young passengers and injured two others in Freehold Township last year, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago announced Wednesday.

The defendant was 17 at the time of the crash, and his identity continues to be withheld by authorities because of his age, officials said.

The juvenile at the wheel was driving "at an excessive speed, swerving in and out of lanes, when he lost control of his car," an investigation by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and the Freehold Township Police Department determined.

The car ran off the road, and struck multiple objects before rolling through a parking lot, eventually striking a steel support pole from a business sign, the prosecutor's office said Wednesday.

A 15-year-old boy from Allentown and a 17-year-old boy from Manalapan died April 19, 2022 in the single-car crash on Route 9 in Freehold Township, officials said last year.

The driver and one passenger, a 15-year-old Manalapan girl, were treated and released for minor injuries at the time of accident. Another passenger, a 17-year-old boy from Allentown, was hospitalized at the time of the accident and treated for injuries.

The driver was from Howell according to information provided last year, has now been charged in juvenile complaints with two counts of second-degree vehicular homicide and two counts of assault by auto.

The prosecutor's office said it was shortly after 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 19, 2022, when police were dispatched to the area of 3468 Route 9 in Freehold Township for the single-vehicle car crash in which a 2004 Chevrolet Malibu was overturned. An initial investigation showed the car was traveling southbound on Route 9.

There were five teens involved: The juvenile defendant, along with four juvenile victims who had been passengers in his vehicle.

Authorities are still investigating the matter, and anyone with information is asked to contact Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office Detective Brian Boryszewski at 800-533-7443 or Freehold Township Police Officer Sean Foley at 732-462-7500.

This case has been assigned to Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutors Joseph Cummings and Travis Clark.