New Jersey Tow Truck Driver and Wife Killed in Accident

A New Jersey tow truck operator and his wife were killed in a crash as they were responding to another accident.

Robert Johnson, 70, and his wife Shirley, 62 were in their 1985 Chevy flatbed truck when it went through a stop sign and into the woods where it hit a tree and burst into flames. The couple was trapped inside the burning vehicle.

Passersby tried to put out the fire and free the couple but were unsuccessful.

The accident happened around 8:00 in the evening in Jackson Township, Ocean County, New Jersey.

The Johnsons, who had been married for 40 years, were the parents of five sons and also had nine grandchildren. They had operated BJ towing, off Bennetts Mills Road, for many years.

The cause of the accident is under investigation.

An autopsy showed no sign that Robert Johnson had suffered a heart attack or a stroke before the accident. His cause of death was smoke inhalation and severe burns. Shirley Johnson’s death was due to injuries that included a ruptured aorta.

This past summer, another accident involving a flatbed tow truck occurred when a Mercury Sable’s brakes failed, causing the car to crash into the tow truck. The Sable ran off Route 4 and almost collided with a Bergen Country police car that was stopped so the officers could investigate a hit-and-run accident. The Sable them collided with and slid under the flatbed, shearing off the car’s roof.

An officer already at the scene was able to reach the Sable’s driver through the car’s windshield and give her emergency first aid. She was seriously injured, with head trauma and deep lacerations on her arm.

The tow truck driver was also slightly injured.

If you’ve been involved in an accident with a tow truck or any other kind of vehicle, or if you’ve suffered a serious personal injury in New Jersey, contact an experienced personal injury attorney at the law firm of Law Offices of Jeffrey S. Hasson, P.C.