Truck Driver Charged In Fatal South Brunswick Crash Nabbed In Georgia

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ - A Bridgeton man was charged in connection with the fatal crash that killed three people on April 12, Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone and Police Chief Raymond Hayducka said.

On May 29, Joseph Vega of Bridgeton was charged with three counts of first-degree Aggravated Manslaughter and three counts of second-degree Vehicular Homicide.

On Wednesday Vega was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force in Georgia. Vega will be housed in Georgia pending extradition.

On April 12 at 9:36 A.M., authorities responded to Route 1 and Ridge Road following the report of a crash.

On arrival, authorities found a tractor-trailer that had struck a passenger van in the intersection of Ridge Road and Route 1. The passenger van then collided with two other vehicles, police said.

Both the tractor-trailer and passenger van caught fire. The three people that were in the van were pronounced dead at the scene - the driver, Charisse Nelson-Bailey, 24 of Princeton Junction, and both passengers Daniel Vida, 28, of Princeton Junction, and Maria Passalaris, 25, of Skillman.

According to an investigation led by Officer Bryan Sites of the South Brunswick Police Department and Sgt. Jonathan Berman of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, at the time of the collision, the tractor-trailer driven by Vega, 43, was transporting an oversized concrete load when it failed to stop for a red light at the intersection resulting in the fatal collision.

Vega will be subject to a detention hearing upon his return to New Jersey.

The investigation is active and continuing. Anyone with information is asked to call Officer Sites of the South Brunswick Police Department at 732-329-4646 or Sergeant Berman of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office at 732-745-4328.

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