Bicyclist Hurt in Monday Crash Was Going Wrong Way

Jose Aquirre, a 42-year-old resident of the 400 block of Cuyler Avenue in Trenton, has been identified by Lawrence Township police as the man who was injured when his bicycle collided with a car at the intersection of Brunswick Pike (Business Route 1) and Puritan Avenue on Monday afternoon (May 9).

Aguirre suffered minor head and facial injuries in the accident, which was reported at 5:42 p.m.

Lt. Charles Edgar, police department spokesman, said Aguirre was peddling south in the shoulder of the northbound side of Brunswick Pike when his bicycle crashed into the passenger’s side of a vehicle that was turning out from Puritan Avenue.

The vehicle’s driver, Patrick Lang, 56, of Recklesstown Way in Chesterfield, told police he had been driving on Puritan Avenue, pulled up to the corner, obeyed the stop sign, looked both ways and, not seeing any oncoming traffic, started to turn right to go north on Brunswick Pike, according to Edgar.

It was as he was making his turn that the bicycle being ridden by Aguirre crashed into his vehicle, Lang told police.

Aguirre was transported by a Lawrence Township Emergency Medical Service ambulance crew to Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton for treatment, Edgar said.

He said Officer Daniel Gladney issued Aguirre a ticket for biking against the flow of traffic.

The accident involving Aguirre occurred about 15 minutes after and not far away from where another bicyclist from Trenton was killed in an unrelated collision.

That deadly accident occurred along the southbound sides of the Trenton Freeway (Route 1) in Trenton, just south of the Lawrence Township line, a little before 5:30 p.m.

Both Trenton and Lawrence received 911 calls about the accident, so both municipalities sent police officers and emergency medical personnel to the scene.

While Trenton police and the detectives from the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office conducted their investigation, Lawrence Township police assisted with traffic control, closing the southbound side of the Trenton Freeway where Route 1 splits into the freeway and Business Route 1 just south of Franklin Corner Road. They also closed the entrance ramps leading to Route 1 South from Whitehead Road.

The southbound lanes of the Trenton Freeway remained closed until about 10 p.m.