Richard Williams, 45, of Brooklyn, N.Y., the driver of the tractor-trailer involved in the crash that killed a Pennsylvania woman and her two young sons Friday night on Route 1 has been charged with three counts of death by auto.
LAWRENCE — The driver of the tractor-trailer involved in the crash that killed a Pennsylvania woman and her two young sons Friday night on Route 1 has been charged with three counts of death by auto, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Richard Williams, 45, of Brooklyn, N.Y., is being held at the Mercer County Correction Center in lieu of $100,000 bail in the deaths of Jamella Tisdale, 25, Jaevon Durante, 9, and Jaden Tisdale, 3½ months, of Levittown, Pa., according to the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office. Tisdale’s husband, Shaquan, 25, and daughter, Mellady Durante, 8, were injured in the crash and remain in stable condition in the hospital.
The prosecutor’s office said Williams was traveling south on Brunswick Pike (Business Route 1) when he made an illegal U-turn from the right lane at the Darrah Lane intersection, and turned into the path of the family’s Chevrolet Tahoe, which was in the left lane headed south on Brunswick Pike.
The intersection of Brunswick Pike and Darrah Lane in Lawrence. The accident is still under investigation, First Assistant Prosecutor Angelo Onofri said last night.
It did not appear that speed or drugs or alcohol were a factor in the accident, and everyone involved was wearing their seat belts, he said.
“It appears like the truck driver was lost in the area,” Onofri said.
Shaqwan Tisdale is an author, gospel musician and life coach, according to his website. The family was on the way to Lighthouse Outreach Ministry on Bellvue Avenue in Trenton for a concert celebrating the release of his album when the accident happened.
His family was unable to be reached yesterday.
Tisdale wrote on his website that he was born and raised in North Carolina and grew up across New Jersey before becoming a husband and father.
“Although I am now a proud husband and father of two children and one on the way, I have not always had a life of happiness. I am a person who has come so far, yet has so far to go. I have made many bad decisions, endured countless disappointments and experienced many losses..,” he wrote on his site, which appeared to have been posted prior to the birth of Jaden.
Emergency responders found the SUV wedged under the bed of the tractor-trailer, which was stopped in the center of the intersection of Brunswick Pike and Darrah Lane just after 6:30 p.m. Friday. Fire crews had to stabilize the truck’s bed before they could extricate the passengers from the SUV.
The car was wedged at least three-quarters of the way under the truck, Trenton Battalion Chief Robert Tharp said Friday night. The process of freeing the victims from the wreckage continued for several hours.
City firefighters used all the tools at their disposal to free the trapped passengers.
“We had everything — hydraulic equipment, air bags,” Tharp said Friday night.
The accident closed Brunswick Pike in the area.
Contact Jon Offredo at joffredo@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5680.
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