Truck Driver Charged with Vehicular Homicide After Route 1 Crash that Killed a Skillman Woman

By Barbara A. Preston | Posted August 8, 2024

Police arrested a New Jersey truck driver on July 3 for allegedly driving through a red light, leading to a horrific wreck that killed three people in a van on Route 1 at Ridge Road in South Brunswick.

Scene of the accident on Route 1 in South Brunswick. (From PIX11)

Pronounced dead at the scene of the April 12 crash were: Maria Passalaris, 25, of Skillman; Charisse Nelson-Bailey, 24, of Princeton Junction; and Daniel Vida, 28, of Princeton Junction. An investigation determined that at the time of the collision, the tractor-trailer driven by Joseph Vega, 43, of Bridgeton, was transporting an oversized concrete load when it failed to stop for a red light at the intersection, resulting in the fatal collision.

Maria Passalaris of Skillman.

On May 29, Vega was charged with three counts of first-degree Aggravated Manslaughter and three counts of second-degree Vehicular Homicide. The U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force in Georgia eventually found and arrested Vega on July 3. He will be housed in Georgia pending extradition. Vega will be subject to a detention hearing upon his return to New Jersey.

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The investigation is active and continuing. Anyone with information is asked to call Officer Bryan Sites of the South Brunswick Police Department at 732.329.4646 or Sergeant Jonathan Berman of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office at 733.745.4328.