Driver, 60, dies after crash on Route 18 at Arthur Street
EAST BRUNSWICK — An Ocean County man died early Friday after he was injured in a two-vehicle crash on Route 18 North in East Brunswick, police said.
Jeffrey Dembinski, 60, of Whiting suffered an apparent chest injury when his 2007 Hyundai Elantra rear-ended a 1999 Dodge Durango at 12:25 a.m. at the Arthur Street intersection, police said. Police, however, are still investigating the cause of death.
Police determined that the driver of the Durango, 21-year-old Michelle Fazio of Piscataway, had been stopped at a red light in the highway’s center lane, Capt. William Krause said. When the signal turned green, Fazio began to move, but the SUV was suddenly struck from behind by Dembinski’s car.
Dembinski was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where he was pronounced dead, Krause said. The cause of death has not yet been determined.
A passenger in Dembinski’s car, 55-year-old Mary Hittle of Benton, Pa., was also taken to the hospital with chest injuries. She was listed in serious condition but was stable, the captain said in a morning news release.
Fazio suffered minor back and neck injuries. She was evaluated and released from the New Brunswick hospital.