The Turnpike Authority says it will consider putting in a divider at the Turnpike's 14C toll plaza in the wake of Monday's fatal crash there.
JERSEY CITY -- The New Jersey Turnpike Authority will consider installing a divider at the toll plaza where a beloved teacher and his 5-year-old daughter were killed Monday in a three-car crash, a spokesman for the agency said yesterday.
Police said Tim O'Donnell, 48, and Bridget O'Donnell, both of Bayonne, were killed Monday afternoon when they were rear-ended at the 14C toll plaza on the Hudson County Extension. The collision propelled O'Donnell's 2001 Chevrolet Malibu through the tolls and into oncoming, eastbound traffic on the other side of the roadway.
State Police have not given any indication of which impact -- the initial crash or the ensuing head-on collision with a CarePoint Health van in the eastbound lanes -- killed O'Donnell and his daughter.
In June 2014, a similar crash occurred at the 14C toll plaza when a Brooklyn man was killed after his Toyota was rear-ended and forced through a cone median into oncoming traffic. Four others were injured in the crash.
NJTA spokesman Tom Feeney said yesterday that in both Monday's crash and the June 2014 crash, there was significant damage done to the rears of both vehicles before they crossed into oncoming traffic, and much less damage done to the front ends.
In the June 2014 crash, the man who was killed was a backseat passenger and the area of the car that was struck by oncoming traffic "was dented and had paint transfer," Feeney said, adding that airbags also didn't deploy in the two cars involved in that crash.
The 14C toll plaza on the New Jersey Turnpike Hudson County Extension in Jersey City, where Tim O'Donnell, 48, and his 5-year-old daughter Bridget, were killed on Monday, Feb. 22, 2016. (Google Maps image)Feeney said it's "way too soon to draw any conclusions" about Monday's crash, given that state police haven't completed their investigation, but he noted that "catastrophic damage" was done to the back of O'Donnell's car from the rear-end collision.
Feeney said most toll plazas do not have barriers separating entering and exiting traffic, and that engineering standards don't call for median barriers at low-speed toll plazas.
Nevertheless, he said the Turnpike Authority will consider putting in a divider at the toll plaza in Jersey City.
"The staff here will look at the circumstances surrounding the tragedy on Monday to see if anything can be done to prevent future tragedies. Median barrier certainly will be part of the conversation," Feeney said.
In explaining the reasoning behind the presence or lack of barriers at toll plazas along the Turnpike, the spokesman said a median barrier was added at Exit 15W "a year or two ago after the judgment was made that the barrier would prevent serious accidents at that location."
Meanwhile, the median barrier at 16E/18E isn't related to a safety issue but was rather placed there to prevent vehicles from cutting across the plaza from one exit to the other, Feeney said.
The only other toll plazas on NJTA roads where there are median barriers are ones where there are high-speed E-ZPass lanes, he added.
Scott Hahn, 36, of Hamilton, has been charged with two counts each of aggravated manslaughter and vehicular homicide. In court yesterday, it was revealed that Hahn admitted to police he had taken 10 Adderall pills and hadn't slept for 26 hours before rear-ending O'Donnell's vehicle.
O'Donnell worked as a science teacher County Prep High School in Jersey City and had been driving home from the Montgomery Street school with his daughter at the time of the crash.
Jonathan Lin may be reached at jlin@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @jlin_jj. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.