HAMILTON — An early morning crash over the weekend in Mercer County claimed the life of an 18-year-old Lakewood resident and left another teenager critically injured, authorities said.
Police responded around 4 a.m. Sunday, April 12, to a two-vehicle collision on Route 130 involving a Mazda CX-3 and a U.S. Postal Service tractor-trailer, according to the Hamilton Township Police Department.
Eliyahu Schepansky, 18, who was a passenger in the Mazda, sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
The driver of the Mazda, identified as 19-year-old Mordechai Sokol of Lakewood, suffered serious injuries and was transported by ambulance to Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton.
Investigators said the Mazda was traveling southbound on Route 130 and had slowed in the right lane near the intersection with First Responders Way. A USPS tractor-trailer, operated by 43-year-old Beatriz Reyes of the Bronx, was also heading south in the middle lane.
Authorities said that as the truck proceeded through the intersection with a green light, the Mazda attempted a sudden left turn toward the northbound lanes, placing it directly in the truck’s path.
The impact pushed both vehicles across the grassy median, where they came to rest in the northbound lanes, police said.
Reyes was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton with injuries.
The crash remains under investigation by Officer P. Welsh of the Hamilton Police Traffic Unit. Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 609-581-4000.
