Off-Duty Officer Injured In High-Speed Ocean County Crash Lucky To Be Alive: Prosecutor

TOMS RIVER, NJ — The off-duty police officer injured in a high-speed crash on April when a Lakewood man ran a red light is lucky to be alive, authorities said Friday.

Matthew McAvoy had just left work and was headed home when his Honda Civic was T-boned in the intersection of Cedar Bridge Avenue and New Hampshire Avenue shortly after midnight on April 20, authorites said.

Edwin Ramirez Carranza, 20, ran two red lights and was going 106 mph in the Chevy Silverado as he drove north on New Hampshire Avenue before hitting McAvoy's car, an assistant prosecutor said Friday during his detention hearing.

McAvoy suffered a shattered pelvis, a broken leg and severe internal bleeding as a result of the crash, and was flown to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, the assistant prosecutor said. He remains hospitalized, the assistant prosecutor said.

"It's a miracle he wasn’t killed," the assistant prosecutor said. "He has a lifelong recovery ahead of him."

Ramirez Carranza of Lakewood is charged with aggravated assault in the crash and was ordered to remain in the Ocean County Jail pending trial by Superior Court Judge Pamela Snyder during Friday's hearing.

At the crash scene, "officers saw in plain view a grinder" which the prosecutor said is used to prepare marijuana to smoke it on the front seat of Ramirez Carranza's pickup truck. Results of testing on a court-approved blood draw on Ramirez Carranza are still pending, the prosecutor said.

In arguing for Ramirez Carranza to be held, the assistant prosecutor said he had been arrested in Lakehurst in October 2024 following a crash on Route 70 where he and others are alleged to have been street racing. Ramirez Carranza was charged with underage driving under the influence in that case, the assistant prosecutor said. Patch has requested the police report on the incident from the Lakehurst Police Department.

Ramirez Carranza's attorney sought to have him released on home supervision with conditions that would have allowed him to work and attend church with his mother, but the assistant prosecutor argued that all the carveouts would have made the home detention meaningless.

Snyder agreed in ordering Ramirez Carranza to be held pending trial.

Ramirez Carranza, who is a citizen of Guatemala, has an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer in addition to Snyder's order that he be held.

In addition to aggravated assault, Ramirez-Carranzo has been issued numerous motor vehicle summonses, including: operating an unregistered vehicle; careless driving; reckless driving; failure to observe a traffic signal; speeding; operating a motor vehicle after 11 p.m. with a probationary driver’s license; using a wireless device while operating a motor vehicle with a probationary driver’s license; failure to have required decals on a license plate while operating a motor vehicle with a probationary driver’s license, and having an unsealed container of cannabis in a motor vehicle, the prosecutor's office said at the time of his arrest.