Man Admits Meth Use Before Route 70 Crash In Toms River That Injured Girl, 4

TOMS RIVER, NJ — An Ocean County man has pleaded guilty to being under the influence of methamphetamine in a March 2023 crash on Route 70 in Toms River that critically injured a 4-year-old girl, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said Tuesday.

Charles J. Sharkey Jr., 35, of Jackson Township, pled guilty on Monday to aggravated assault and driving while intoxicated before Superior Court Judge Dina M. Vicari in the crash that happened March 23, 2023, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.

In addition, Sharkey pled guilty before Vicari to being a certain person not to possess a firearm in an unrelated incident that happened March 12, 2023, in Jackson, the prosecutor's office said.

The crash happened about 4 p.m. on March 23, 2023, at the intersection of Route 70 and Massachusetts Avenue, moments after someone called 911 to report an erratic driver.

Sharkey was driving east on Route 70 in a rented 2022 Dodge Ram 1500 and failed to stop at the red light at Massachusetts Avenue. He grazed the rear of a 2016 Honda CRV that was turning left onto Massachusetts Avenue from Route 70 west then hit a 2017 Subaru Impreza that also was trying to turn left onto Massachusetts Avenue from Route 70 west, investigators determined.

The impact pushed the Impreza backward and caused it to spin, and the pickup truck overturned and came to rest on the driver's side and caught fire. As the pickup overturned it grazed a 2021 Lexus RX 350 causing minor damage.

The man who was driving the Impreza and three children who were with him were injured, Billhimer said. All four were taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center. The man and two of the children were treated and released but the third child, a girl who was 4 years old at the time, according to a GoFundMe campaign created by her aunt.

The girl was critically injured but survived and was later transferred to a rehabilitation facility. She now is at home recovering, the prosecutor's office said.

Investigators learned Sharkey had been driving erratically and was using a cell phone just before the crash, and that he was driving despite having a suspended driver’s license. He also had two active warrants for his arrest, the prosecutor said. The nature of those warrants was not released.

The Dodge Ram was rented, and Sharkey had taken it without the consent of the person who had rented it, Billhimer said.

Sharkey was injured in the crash and taken to Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus in Lakewood for treatment, and his blood draw under a warrant, authorities said. Laboratory results showed Sharkey was under the influence of meth at the time of the crash.

The March 12, 2023, incident where Sharkey pled guilty involved authorities finding him slumped over and sleeping in a vehicle on North County Line Road in Jackson.

Police found he was under the influence of an intoxicant and he was arrested, the prosecutor's office said. A search of his vehicle turned up a .22 caliber handgun, the prosecutor said.

Sharkey was released from jail in that incident, just 11 days before the Route 70 crash, the prosecutor said.

Sharkey has been held in the Ocean County Jail since the March 23, 2023, crash.

He is scheduled for sentencing on Dec. 20, and Billhimer said prosecutors will be seeking 10 years in prison subject to the No Early Release Act on the aggravated assault charge, and 10 years on the weapons charge, with five years of parole ineligibility.