Four Die, One Injured in Wrong-Way Turnpike Crash in New Jersey

Four people were killed and a fifth was hospitalized after a wrong way crash on the southbound New Jersey Turnpike in Carneys Point Township shortly after midnight early Sunday, officials said. New Jersey State Police said the multi-vehicle crash occurred near mile marker 1.3, south of Exit 1, when a Dodge pickup truck was traveling north in the southbound lanes and collided with a southbound Mazda SUV; the Mazda was then struck from behind by a tractor-trailer.

State police identified the pickup driver as Christopher Neff, 41, of Westminster, Colorado, who suffered serious injuries and was taken to a hospital. The driver of the Mazda was identified as 19-year-old Yaakov Kilberg of Lakewood, New Jersey. Three passengers in that vehicle, Aharon Lebovits, 18, and Shlomo Cohen, 18, both of Lakewood, and Chaim Grossman, 18, of Fallsburg, New York, were also killed, authorities said. The tractor-trailer driver, identified by police as 29-year-old Harpret Singh Sandhu of Nova Scotia, was not injured.

Officials described the collision as a wrong way crash initiated by the pickup traveling in the southbound lanes against traffic. Responders performed a simultaneous winching operation...