By Amanda Hoover
NJ Advance Media Group, Edison, N.J.
CRANBURY, N.J. — A New Jersey State Police trooper was thrown 30 feet through the windshield of his cruiser during a crash on the New Jersey Turnpike involving a dump truck Monday and was seriously hurt, but expect to recover, officials said.
“How that trooper lived, is unbelievable,” acting State Police Superintendent Patrick Callahan said, noting that being thrown from the vehicle is likely what saved the man’s life. Photos of the mangled SUV showed the driver’s side crushed with the driver’s seat pressed into the dashboard.
The crash took place Monday morning near milepost 70.7 on the southbound side of the turnpike in Cranbury, according to State Police. The trooper’s SUV was stopped when it was hit. The trooper’s name has not been released.
Callahan gave an update on the trooper’s condition during Gov. Phil Murphy’s coronavirus press briefing in Trenton.
Video from the scene showed the cruiser obliterated, only half of it recognizable and surrounded by debris.
Murphy said a dump truck’s axel broke off and flipped over onto the trooper’s cruiser, causing the collision. He called the crash “horrific.”
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