A Morris County man was killed and his front-seat passenger was hospitalized late Tuesday morning following a violent, four-vehicle chain-reaction pileup on the New Jersey Turnpike extension in Hudson County.
The fatal crash occurred at approximately 11:07 a.m. along the eastbound lanes of the Hudson Bay Extension at milepost 2.8 in Bayonne.
According to a preliminary investigation by the New Jersey State Police, traffic was heading eastbound when a Freightliner tractor-trailer struck the rear of an Acura SUV.
The initial impact set off a severe domino effect among the line of vehicles ahead:
After being slammed from behind by the tractor-trailer, the Acura—driven by 64-year-old Timothy S. Roufaeal of Boonton, New Jersey—accelerated violently forward into the back of a Jeep SUV.
The Acura then veered hard to the right, crashing into a concrete highway barrier.
The force of that secondary collision propelled the Jeep forward, causing it to strike the rear of a Toyota pickup truck.
State troopers confirmed that Roufaeal sustained fatal injuries in the multi-vehicle crash.
An unidentified passenger riding in the front seat of Roufaeal's Acura suffered moderate injuries and was transported by emergency medical personnel to an area hospital for treatment. No other injuries were reported from the scene among the occupants of the semi-truck, the Jeep or the Toyota pickup.
The eastbound extension faced heavy delays as emergency crews worked to clear the scattered wreckage. The exact cause of the crash remains under active investigation by State Police.