Pedestrian Struck and Killed by Car on Route 1

A pedestrian was killed when she was struck by a car on Route 1 (Brunswick Pike), at the intersection of Bakers Basin Road/Franklin Corner Road, in Lawrence Township late Thursday night (Aug. 23).

The alleged driver of the vehicle was arrested by police shortly after the woman was pronounced dead at the scene. He could be seen handcuffed and being placed into the rear of a patrol car.

At the time of this report – 1:30 a.m. Friday – both northbound lanes of Route 1 were closed to traffic between Bakers Basin Road/Franklin Corner Road and Interstate 295, as investigators from the township police department and the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office worked to reconstruct the deadly accident.

Police said video footage recorded by the red light traffic camera system at the intersection will be reviewed as part of the investigation.

It was about 11:40 p.m. Thursday when the woman, who was possibly trying to cross Route 1 in a wheelchair near the pedestrian crosswalk at the intersection, was struck along the northbound side of the road. The impact was so violent, police said, that the woman was thrown a considerable distance north of the intersection.

Police officers, a township ambulance crew and Capital Health System paramedics arrived on the scene within minutes of the first 911 call from witnesses but there was nothing that could be done and the woman was pronounced dead.

A white sheet was placed over her body, which had come to rest in the northbound shoulder of Route 1, near the curb line at the northern edge of the Party City parking lot.

The man alleged to be the driver of the car was still at the scene when police arrived and was quickly detained.

Police spent more than an hour searching the surrounding area for another man who, according to witnesses, appeared to jump from the car and run away after the vehicle stopped on Route 1 just north of the woman’s body.

A man matching the description given by those witnesses was stopped for questioning when, at about 1 a.m., officers located him at the Mount’s Motel, just north of the accident scene.

At the time of this report, it was not known if that man had been officially linked to the accident by police.

No other details were available at the time of this report. This story will be updated as new information becomes available.

Anyone with information about the accident is asked to call police at (609) 896-1111.