The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
A 49-year-old New Brunswick man was killed Dec. 28 in a head-on car accident that shut down Franklin Boulevard for four hours.
Police said Mark Byrd was unresponsive when they arrived at the scene of the accident shortly after 5 p.m. Byrd’s car, a 1997 Mitsubishi Galant, had collided with a 2006 Toyota Sienna driven by Tracey Araque, 45, of Monmouth Junction.
Police said Araque and her passenger, a 15-year-old girl, were treated at the scene for complaints of pain.
Byrd was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, where he was pronounced dead at 6 p.m., police said.
Police said the investigation showed that Byrd was heading south on Franklin Boulevard when his car crossed the center line and struck the northbound Sienna head-on.
Police said the contributing factors that led up to the crash are still under investigation.
Franklin Boulevard was shut down in both directions for about four hours while members of the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Team (C.A.R.T) and Franklin Township Police Department’s Traffic Safety Bureau investigated the crash, police said.
Police ask anyone with information on the accident to contact Cpl. Michael Deutchman of the Franklin Township Police Department’s Traffic Safety Bureau at (732) 873-5533 ext. 3110, or the Prosecutor’s Office TIPS Hotline at (888) 577-TIPS(8477).
