Updated: Man Extricated from Mangled Car in Lawrence

A man had to be cut out of the mangled wreckage of his car after it was involved in a collision with a pickup truck on Brunswick Pike (Business Route 1) near Pilgrim Avenue in Lawrence Township today (Friday, Sept. 23).

Fortunately, Subarna Samanta, a 58-year-old resident of the Princeton Junction section of West Windsor Township, suffered only minor injuries in the afternoon crash, according to Lawrence Township police.

Police Sgt. Gary Schenck said the accident occurred about 2:40 p.m. when a 17-year-old driver lost control of his 2003 Chevrolet pickup truck while attempting to make a right turn onto Brunswick Pike from Hope Street.

The pickup crossed the southbound lanes of Brunswick Pike, went over the median and entered the northbound side of the road, where it slammed into the northbound 2009 Honda Accord being driven by Samanta, Schenck said.

He said a third vehicle – a 2009 Honda Odyssey driven by Eva Jones, 57, from the Mercerville section of Hamilton Township – struck the curb while trying to avoid colliding with the two other vehicles.

Samanta was “heavily entrapped” inside his wrecked vehicle. Lawrence Township’s daytime duty crew of career firefighters and volunteer firefighters from the Slackwood, Lawrence Road and Lawrenceville fire companies worked for over 20 minutes to free Samanta.

Firefighters cut away the Honda’s doors, windshield and roof in order to extricate Samanta.

It was the second rescue township firefighters completed on Friday. Earlier in the day, firefighters cut apart a Nissan Sentra to free a trapped woman after her car was involved in a collision on Interstate 95.

Samanta and the 17-year-old driver of the pickup both suffered minor injuries and were transported by ambulance to Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton, Schenck said. He said the third driver, Jones, was not hurt.

Officer Marc Poveromo investigated and issued a traffic summons to the 17-year-old driver for causing the accident, Schenck said. He said the crash forced police to close both northbound lanes of Brunswick Pike and the left southbound lane for about an hour.