NEWS

Five vehicles, three crashes, two injured in Vineland

Deborah M. Marko
@dmarko_dj
A Good Samaritan was critically injured while trying to assist the driver of this Cadillac after a crash Monday at Delsea Drive and  Sherman Avenue.

VINELAND -  A chain-reaction of three crashes involving five vehicles within five minutes shut down the intersection of Delsea Drive and Sherman Avenue for several hours Monday night and critically injured a good Samaritan.

Just after 9:30 p.m., a driver of a Cadillac headed north on Delsea Drive collided with an R.I. Pierson commercial truck, headed west on Sherman Avenue, which then set off a succession of crashes.

A responding police car pulled across the road to block westbound traffic on Sherman Avenue and set up flares near the A Estates Inc. car lot.

A good Samaritan, whom police identified as Christoph Edwards, 38, of Upper Township, saw the collision and initially checked on the truck driver, who was not reported injured, police told The Daily Journal.

Two people were reported injured, one critically, after a chain reaction of crashes Monday night at Delsea Drive and Sherman Avenue, Vineland.

Edwards then went to assist the driver of the Cadillac, Yajaira Gonzalez, 34, of the 600 block of South East Boulevard, said police.

He carried Gonzalez from her car to his pickup truck and returned to Cadillac, where police believe he was retrieving an item for the woman.

A driver of an F-250 pickup truck heading north of Delsea told police he was distracted by a strobe light coming from a vehicle on the side of the road. The pickup slammed head-on into the Cadillac, spinning it around, police said, noting Edwards was standing alongside the vehicle and was critically injured.

Edwards was driven to Cooper University Hospital in Camden, where he was listed in critical but stable condition, according to investigators.

Tire falls off vehicle during Vineland test drive

Gonzalez was taken to Inspira Medical Center Vineland for reported leg injuries.

Meanwhile, Don Emery, 27, of Garry Avenue, who was headed east on Sherman Avenue, was cited for careless driving after a crash with the parked police car. He told police he misjudged the distance as he drove his Ford pickup around the marked vehicle. Both vehicles sustained minor damage, according to police.

The crash remains under investigation by the city’s Traffic Safety Unit.

Deborah M. Marko; (856) 563-5256; dmarko@gannettnj.com