PHOTOS BY THOMAS ELLIS II
NEWARK / MAPLEWOOD – Authorities informed residents in the Newark, Maplewood, South Orange and Irvington area around 151 Irvington Ave. April 27 – including two South Orange-Maplewood School District communities – were told to shelter in place and look out for a man who fled a fatal two-car crash here.
That Dodge Ram pickup driver, who two witnesses said had been drinking before colliding into a Rose Hill Plaza storefront remains at large. Relatives of the deceased – identified by ECPO as Ruth Benjamin, 81, of Newark – are making funeral arrangements for the Ivy Hill Laundromat patron who was killed in the crash.
Witnesses told county detectives and reporters that the pickup driver got into the truck after being seen drinking at the far end or Irvington Avenue side of the Rose Hill parking lot. The vehicle accelerated into a Chevrolet SUV that was parked before the laundromat.
The Chevy driver said she stopped to check on her laundry when the truck smashed into her SUV. Both vehicles then plunged into the laundromat’s storefront. The truck struck Benjamin – who was sitting at a table by the front window – and was then sent airborne halfway into the store. Benjamin would be declared dead at the scene.
Police and traffic helicopters hovered above the crash site while local and county law enforcers investigated the crime scene. SOMSD administrators put the nearby Clinton Elementary School and Underhill Field Sports Complex into shelter-in-place lockdown 3:51-4:09 p.m.
Both vehicles were towed away and the laundromat’s storefront was boarded up by 9 p.m. Monday.
