Two New Jersey males die in Labor Day Weekend car crash

Labor Day weekend is one of the busiest times for New Jersey roadways. Many New Jersey residents traveled to late summer vacation spots throughout the state and region. Unfortunately one of these summer trips ended in tragedy for a New Jersey man and his nephews. Authorities say that a 24-year-old man from Wayne, New Jersey and his 12-year-old nephew of Paterson, New Jersey were killed this Monday morning in a rural New York car accident.

“We have been relatively lucky this summer as far as motor vehicle fatalities,” the area sheriff said. “It is such a shame that so many families have to have this kind of tragedy, this kind of loss, on the holiday weekend. There is no good time. This is such a dangerous corridor.”

Pictures of a wreckage show the New Jersey man’s white Ford Explorer crumpled and upside down. It was involved in a severe head-on collision caused when the man’s Explorer or the GMC Jimmy it collided with drifted across the center median of the road. The driver of the Jimmy had to be extricated, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Remnants of a Labor Day weekend camping trip were strewn across the road. There was a cooler, a sleeping bag and other camping equipment surrounded the crash site. The only survivor of the crash was a 9-year-old New Jersey boy in the Explorer. His brother and uncle were not wearing seat belts and he was the only one buckled in.

The boy says that he remembers looking at the fields in the area and hearing a bang. The next thing the boy remembers is being pulled out of the car with his family members dead.

“It is a terrible way to end the summer,” the area sheriff said as he stood over the wreckage.

Source: Times Herald-Record, “Update: Police identify three killed in crash on Route 17B,” Victor Whitman, Sept. 6, 2011