Garden state parkway toll booth crash

[willthethrill]

hopefully this inst reposted

video:
http://www.break.com/index/toll-boot...explosion.html




http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/n...-7373122c.html

SOMERS POINT — A motorist was killed Thursday morning when his car crashed at high speed into a concrete barrier and toll booth on the Garden State Parkway here.

The car — estimated to be traveling at about 65 mph — immediately burst into flames.

State Police said troopers working at a nearby truck-exhaust checkpoint at the Great Egg toll plaza rushed to the scene, only to have their rescue attempt foiled by flames from the burning car.

“They couldn't get him out,” Trooper L. Chiapelli, of the State Police barracks in Bass River, said of the driver.

While State Police said they believe the dead man was from Cape May County, they were waiting for autopsy results — and a check of the victim's dental records — to make a positive identification. The autopsy was to be done Thursday afternoon by the Atlantic County Medical Examiner's Office.

Authorities also are trying to figure out just why the man crashed into the barrier, destroying the protective concrete at the unmanned toll booth.

Officials with the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which operates the parkway, said they believe State Police are investigating whether the crash was the result of a medical condition.

State Police would not comment on that possibility.

Whatever the reason, authority officials who reviewed films of the crash caught by toll booth security cameras where shocked at what they saw.

“You can see considerable speed at the time of the accident,” Turnpike Authority spokesman Joe Orlando said. “The driver didn't even look like he slowed down. It just hit the barricade. It was a horrible accident.”

According to Chiapelli, the accident occurred at 8:25 a.m. when the southbound car arrived at the toll booth. Witnesses said the vehicle appeared to be heading for an E-ZPass toll lane, he said.

“All indications is that he just missed,” Chiapelli said of the driver.

Fire and rescue units quickly arrived on the scene, along with a number of State Police cruisers.

Orlando said the accident closed four toll lanes at the toll plaza. Chiapelli put the number at three.

Orlando said the authority wound up waiving tolls at two toll lanes for about an hour just to keep traffic moving through the scene.

Chiapelli said the car was owned by someone other than the deceased. He would not disclose the vehicle's owner.

Chiapelli also said the victim was apparently headed home, although the trooper said he did not know from where.

The Great Egg toll plaza was one of three parkway toll plazas in southern New Jersey to undergo major changes in 2005 to allow for one-way payment in 2006.

The changes — which included the removal of some toll booths — allowed for northbound motorists to pay no toll at the Great Egg toll plazas and southbound motorists to pay no toll at the Cape May toll plaza in Cape May County and New Gretna toll plaza in Burlington County.

Express E-ZPass was also installed at the Cape May toll plaza.

The work was done to improve traffic flow in the region, especially during the busy summer tourist season.

There are currently no plans to remove any more toll booths, Orlando said, adding taht accidents on the parkway like the one that occurred Thursday are “very, very rare.”