13 Dead on NJ Roads in the Past Week

GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP — An 18-year-old male walking along a road on Tuesday evening was fatally struck by a hit-and-run driver who later turned himself in to police.

The fatality was at least the 13th on New Jersey highways in the past week.

Gloucester Township Police said the man was struck around 8:15 p.m. walking on the 200 block of Sicklerville Road by a pickup truck that left the scene. The male who was struck was taken to Jefferson Hospital in Washington Township, where he was pronounced dead, according to police.

The Camden County Prosecutor's Office identified the deceased as Trohkeem Brantley, 18, of the Sicklerville section of Gloucester Township.

The driver, Bruce Bennett, 66, of Franklinville, turned himself in at Gloucester Township police headquarters; police also recovered the pickup involved. Bennett was charged with second-degree leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident resulting in death, and released pending a court appearance.

It has been a deadly week on New Jersey roads that started in Ocean County on Thursday when Gerardo Zepeda-Martinez, 28, and Emilio Camargo-Sevilla, 45, both of Lakewood, died in a crash in Jackson. In a separate crash, motorcyclist Shawn Mathewson, 34, of Kearny died when he rear-ended a car stopped for traffic on Route 37 in Toms River.

The Jackson crash left 12 children plus an unborn child of a mixed family from Lakewood without two fathers, according to the school district.

Eighteen-year-old Casey Lohne of Medford died on Friday in a head-on collision on Route 73, police told the Courier Post. He was a 2019 graduate of Shawnee High School.

Seventeen-year-old Old Bridge High School student Sarah Hope Aziz and 29-year-old Krystal Diaz died in a crash early Saturday morning in Old Bridge.

Diana Pelayo, 33, of Bergenfield and Huishan Li, 63, of Palisades Park were killed in a head-on collision in Hackensack on Saturday night on Hackensack Avenue, according to Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella.

A person was killed in an incident in the outer lanes of the New Jersey Turnpike near Exit 8 early Tuesday morning, according to State Police, who have not yet disclosed details of the crash or the identity of the deceased.

Gloucester Township Police asked any witnesses to Tuesday night's crash to call them at 856-228-4500 or their Anonymous Tip Line at 856-842-5560.