Car bursts into fire after being pushed into Route 1 store parking lot

🔴 A car crossing Route 1 at Washington Road was struck

🔴 The Honda burst into flames in a store parking lot

🔴 A passenger in the car was killed

WEST WINDSOR — One person was killed Tuesday morning in a crash and car fire on Route 1.

West Windsor police Lt. Mark Lee said a Honda Accord carrying five people was traveling east on Washington Road around 4:20 a.m. when it hit a Kia Sorrento heading north on Route 1 while crossing the highway. The impact sent the Honda off the road and into a traffic light on the grass median.

The Honda continued into the parking lot of an AT&T store where it struck numerous trees and caught fire. Three people inside the vehicle got out on their own before first responders arrived. Police tried to get the other two people out of the vehicle.

The front passenger, an individual from Somerset, was taken to Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton where they were pronounced dead. The other occupants and the driver of the Kia, a resident of Ewing, were treated at the same hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

The identities of those involved in the crash were not disclosed.

Lee did not know if the Honda had the green light when it crossed Route 1 and said the crash is still under investigation.

Closure during the morning commute

Washington Road was closed for five hours between Route 1 and Fairview Avenue for the initial investigation creating long delays on Route 1. Traffic could not go east on Washington Road and the Princeton Junction train station.

It is the 9th fatal crash in Mercer County this year and the second on the heavily traveled Route 1 corridor between Trenton and New Brunswick.

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