Dual Fatal Wreck on Interstate 95

A March 21, 2025 freeway crash, described as the Dual Fatal Wreck on Interstate 95, raises a host of uncertain legal issues. But one thing is certain: the wreck killed two people and seriously injured two others.

Police say a Mazda containing four people traveled off I-95 and landed on Castor Avenue below the interstate. The two killed have been identified as a 22-year-old Cranbury man and a 23-year-old East Windsor man. Their two other brothers, both 18-year-olds from East Windsor, were also seriously injured in the crash, according to state police. Witnesses told police that the Mazda and a Dodge Challenger were racing down I-95 northbound at a high rate of speed when the driver of the Mazda hit a broken guardrail and lost control of his vehicle.

The two rear passengers were ejected from the vehicle and died as a result of their injuries. The driver and the front passenger were taken to nearby hospitals where they remain in critical condition.

Pennsylvania State Police say that a puppy which was apparently riding unsecured in the vehicle was also ejected and found dead.

Passenger Injuries

Before we go further, we should examine the legal and financial rights of injured passengers in vehicle collision claims. Legally, passengers and drivers have the same rights. But for various reasons, many injured passengers don’t partner with an Essex County personal injury lawyer and exercise their rights.

That being said, passenger injury cases are often somewhat more complex than driver injury cases. Certain other legal doctrines, such as assumption of the risk, sometimes apply. More on that below.

Frequently, injured passengers don’t pursue legal options because they don’t want to “blame” a driver, with whom they usually have a close, personal relationship, for an “accident.” This attitude is especially common if a health insurance company paid the victim’s medical bills.

Civil actions don’t blame anyone for anything. Criminal courts assign blame and punish offenders. Civil courts compensate victims and hold people responsible for their mistakes. In a perfect world, people would voluntarily step up to the plate and accept responsibility for their mistakes. But, as we all know, we don’t live in a perfect world.

Additionally, a car crash is almost never an “accident.” The A-word implies no fault or responsibility. People accidentally forget their wallets. But most people don’t accidentally put the pedal to the metal, race down a highway, and carelessly cause collisions.

Furthermore, a health insurance company’s check usually causes more problems than it solves. Most health insurance policies exclude injury-related costs. Typically, when the health insurance company discovers that a bill was injury-related, it demands reimbursement. Additionally, health insurance payments only partially compensate victims, at best. Only a Hudson County personal injury lawyer obtains full compensation for all losses, both economic and noneconomic ones.

Speed and Car Crashes

Excessive velocity is a primary factor in about a third of the car crashes in New Jersey. Speed multiplies the risk of a crash and the force of a collision.

In terms of risk, speed multiplies stopping distance. Before any vehicle stops at any speed, the driver must see a hazard, move his/her foot onto the brake pedal, apply the brakes, and safely stop the vehicle.

This process may take no more than a second or two. In that brief time period, at 30mph, most vehicles keep moving forward for six car lengths. At 60mph, stopping distance multiples to eighteen car lengths. Weather, vehicle weight, and certain other factors may increase stopping distance even further.

In other words, the faster you’re going, the less time you have to react to the rapidly changing situations, such as a changing light, that all drivers experience every day.

Additionally, according to Newton’s Second Law of Gravity, speed multiplies the force in a collision between two objects. A low-speed parking lot fender-bender becomes a high-speed serious injury collision.

Legally, speed has two effects on car crashes as well. These wrecks could involve the negligence per se rule or the ordinary negligence doctrine.

Negligence per se is the violation of a safety law, such as the speed limit law or anti-racing law. If a tortfeasor (negligent driver) violates a safety law, and that violation substantially causes injury, the victim could be entitled to compensation as a matter of law.

The posted speed limit is a presumptively reasonable speed under ideal conditions. If traffic, weather, road, or other conditions are poor, motorists have a duty to slow down and drive more carefully. If they breach their duty of care, according to the ordinary negligence principle, they could be liable for damages.

These damages usually include compensation for economic losses, such as medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering.

Defective Roads

The broken guardrail is an important fact in the above story. Legally, a claim against a city, county, or other government entity is a hornet’s nest, mostly because of sovereign immunity.

In the Middle Ages, this doctrine completely shielded all government workers, such as road designers and construction workers, from liability. Today, this protection is more narrow. It usually only applies to discretionary acts. It usually doesn’t apply to ministerial acts.

The decision to put a guard rail in a certain location is a discretionary act. Usually, in these cases, you can’t sue city hall. Maintaining that guard rail is a ministerial act. The same principle applies to large potholes in the road, disabled traffic signals, and other such hazards.

Ministerial acts often involve third pirates. For example, the city might hire a contractor to fix a damaged guardrail. If that contractor is negligent, probably because it didn’t work fast enough or do the work well enough, that contractor could be liable for damages.

Comparative Fault

This doctrine essentially shifts blame for an accident from the tortfeasor to the victim. For example, a jury might conclude, based on the evidence, that the passenger was 50 percent responsible for injury because he participated in an unsafe race.

Fault distribution rules vary in these cases. New Jersey is a modified comparative fault state with a 51 percent bar. So, if the tortfeasor was at least 51 percent responsible for the wreck, the victim is entitled to a proportionate share of compensation. By comparison, neighboring New York is a pure comparative fault state. Even if the tortfeasor was only 1 percent responsible for the wreck, the victim is entitled to compensation.

We bring up this comparison because multistate collisions are very common in the Tri-State area. For example, the victim may be from New Jersey and the wreck may occur in Pennsylvania or New York.

We should also mention unrestrained pets and comparative fault. Unrestrained pets often distract drivers and therefore could affect the contributory negligence formula.

Connect With a Thorough Bergen County Lawyer

Injury victims are entitled to significant compensation. For a free consultation with an experienced personal injury lawyer in Newark, contact CourtLaw. The sooner you reach out to us, the sooner we start working for you.