A teenager has been charged in connection with a motor-vehicle collision that claimed the life of two juveniles and injured two others in Freehold Township last year, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago announced Wednesday.
The defendant was 17 at the time of the crash, and because of his age, his identity is being withheld. He has been charged on juvenile complaints with two counts of second-degree Vehicular Homicide and two counts of Assault by Auto.
Shortly after 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 19, 2022, law enforcement was dispatched to the area of 3468 U.S. Highway 9 for a single-vehicle motor-vehicle crash. Upon arriving on scene, police located the juvenile defendant, along with four juvenile victims who had been passengers in his vehicle. Two of the victims were pronounced deceased on scene. The others were transported to a local hospital for treatment.
An investigation involving members of the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and the Freehold Township Police Department determined that the juvenile defendant was driving at an excessive speed, swerving in and out of lanes, when he lost control of his car, ran off the road, and struck multiple objects before rolling through a parking lot, eventually striking a steel support pole from a business sign.