Rider Students Shaken But OK After Vehicle Overturns

Three students were shaken but not seriously hurt when the car in which they were riding crashed into a light pole and flipped onto its side Wednesday evening (June 6), according to Lawrence Township police.

The accident occurred about 5:40 p.m. in the parking lot between the soccer field and tennis courts at the rear of Rider’s campus in the 2000 block of Lawrence Road (Route 206).

The driver was identified by police as Samantha Banks, 19, of Vineland, while her two passengers were identified as Kaitlyn D’Onofrio, 21, of Monroe Township, and Maxine Guss, 23, of Brooklyn, N.Y.

“Investigation revealed they are students and had driven to the rear lot area,” police Sgt. Michael Yeh said. “The driver was completing a turn-around when, for an unknown reason, she failed to maintain control of her vehicle, which jumped the curb, continued down the grass and struck a light standard. That caused the vehicle to overturn on its side.”

Township police, a Lawrence Township Emergency Medical Service ambulance crew and volunteer firefighters from Lawrence Road, Slackwood and Lawrenceville fire companies all responded to the scene, along with Rider University public safety officers and university officials.

The three women were still inside the Honda Civic when emergency personnel arrived. “They indicated to first responders that there were not injured, just stuck due to their positioning in the vehicle,” Yeh said.

The women managed to climb out of the overturned auto with help from emergency personnel, he said, adding that all three were then taken by ambulance to Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton to be examined after one of them started to complain about feeling some minor pain.

As a precaution against fire, firefighters cut the battery cables of the wrecked car.

Yeh said the driver, Banks, was issued tickets for careless driving and failing to wear her seat belt.