Updated: Two-Vehicle Crash Involving Flipped Car Snarled Rt. 1 Traffic But Caused No Serious Injuries

A two-vehicle collision that left one of the autos flipped onto its side along the southbound side of Route 1 backed up traffic for several miles during this evening’s (Feb. 3) commuter rush.

But neither driver nor a passenger in one of the vehicles was seriously hurt.

The accident occurred minutes before 4:55 p.m. on Route 1 (Brunswick Pike) between the Kelly Viaduct from Quaker Bridge Mall and Interstate 295.

Kimberly Bryan, 33, of Bensalem, Pa., told police she was driving her Chevrolet sedan in the right southbound lane when she suddenly saw another vehicle out of the corner of her eye, according to Lawrence Township Police Sgt. Dave Buxton.

The next thing Bryan knew, she told police, was feeling her car being pushed to the left and flipping over.

What had happened, Buxton said, was another vehicle being driven by Sarita Curry, 21, of North Plainfield had slammed into the passenger’s side of Bryan’s car.

Curry was attempting to make a right turn onto Route 1 South from the access road leading from the Red Roof Inn and Joe’s Crab Shack. She told police she did not see Bryan’s vehicle and had thought the right lane was clear for her to pull out onto Route 1, according to Buxton.

He said Curry was later issued a careless driving ticket by Officer Shawn Carroll, who investigated the crash.

The force of the impact from Curry’s vehicle flipped Bryan’s car over onto its driver’s side. The car came to rest in the left southbound lane against the highway’s concrete divider.

Township police officers, volunteer firefighters from Lawrenceville, Lawrence Road and Slackwood fire companies and a mutual aid ambulance from West Windsor Township all raced to the scene after 911 calls about the crash started pouring in.

When rescuers arrived, they found that Bryan was not hurt and had been able to crawl out of the wreckage of her flipped car on her own, Buxton said.

Curry complained of minor pain to her head and her passenger, a 24-year-old woman from Plainsboro, complained of minor knee pain, but both declined assistance from the ambulance crew, Buxton said.

Southbound traffic on Route 1, which was already heavy because the evening commute was underway, was further backed up for miles because of the accident. Initially, police were able to keep southbound traffic slowly flowing past the accident scene using the highway’s center lane.

But all three lanes had to be shut completely for about 10 minutes while a tow truck was used to upright Bryan’s vehicle and remove the wreckage. After that was done, the center and left southbound lanes were reopened, with the right lane remaining closed for about an hour while the remainder of the wreckage was cleared up and police concluded their investigation, Buxton said.

Northbound traffic on Route 1 also backed up for a while in the area as a result of drivers on that side of the highway slowing to look at the wreckage.