A man stopped along a busy area highway for a flat tire on his pickup started achain-reaction crash that landed a father and his son in the hospital.
A 61-year-old New York man was in critical condition after a four-truck crash on the New Jersey Turnpike.
The Times of Trenton reports the accident happened around 1 p.m. Thursday near Exit 7A after a pickup truck stopped because of a flat tire. A tractor-trailer with a storage container on its chassis stopped behind the pickup and was hit by a third truck, which knocked the container off. Another truck then hit the container.
Two occupants of the third truck, William Connelly of Centereach, N.Y., and his son, 17-year-old Ryan Connelly, of Smithtown, N.Y., were hospitalized. The father suffered critical head wounds. The son was in stable condition with head and leg lacerations.
State police say two other truck drivers, 27-year-old Darryl Marshall of Iowa and 50-year-old Jose Fonseca of Rhode Island, suffered minor injuries.
The northbound lanes remained closed for nearly four hours.
