Second Vehicle Crash Onto Parsippany Field Addressed By Mayor

PARSIPPANY, NJ — Parsippany Township police have been summoned to Smith Field twice this year after receiving a report that a car had come off the road and landed on the turf field.

This week, a 17-year-old girl said that she lost control of her car as she drove left from Southbound Baldwin Road onto Route 46 Eastbound. Her car veered off the road, colliding with the curb, two fences and a 6-foot-high retaining wall.

Residents are concerned about the proximity of the two car crashes at Smith Field Park, which is located near the crossroads of Route 46 East and Baldwin Road and have questioned why the township has not taken any action on that roadway.

According to the township council and Mayor James Barberio, Route 46 East is not a township road and is instead governed by the state, meaning that all actions around that road would need to come from the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT).

During the Sept. 19 town council meeting, Barberio stated that the chief of police had already put in a request for the NJDOT to come to Parsippany and assess Route 46 East, which they plan on doing soon.

The mayor also stated that the township's traffic division will be collaborating with the NJDOT wherever possible to assert that all safety measures are being taken.

"That area over there has never had anything like that happen before, for years, until this year, we had two incidents. We are going to be doing a traffic pattern study over there with regard to what's happening," Barberio said.

Safety measures could include adding safety barriers to the roadway, but any additions would need to be approved by the state before going up in the township.

Councilman Justin Musella inquired about the possibility of adding a temporary barrier to the roadway while the NJDOT conducts its study, but Barberio stated that even a temporary barrier would have to be the decision of the NJDOT and not the townships.

"The state is going to decide on the barriers, but what we want to do because some of that property is town property, so we might want to put up some ball barriers, something like that, up over there because the last thing we want to see happen is that each time we were lucky that there was no games going on, number one and number two, the first time was the first day of summer programs for the kids, and thank god it rained because they would have been on the field," Barberio said.

According to Sergeant Brian Conover, the investigation into the car crash is still underway, and no traffic summonses have been issued at this time.

Neither the 17-year-old driver nor the passenger were injured in the crash.