A man was killed and six other people were hurt in a chain reaction crash on the Atlantic City Expressway, a violent sequence of collisions that unfolded overnight on the New Jersey highway. Authorities have laid out a grim timeline showing how one crash quickly cascaded into several more.
According to police, the deadly events began after an initial crash on the expressway. Joseph Pagano, a 34-year-old from Manahawkin, got out of his pickup truck following that first collision, stepping into an active and dangerous stretch of roadway in the dark.
It was then that the situation turned fatal. As Pagano was walking across the lanes, he was hit and killed by an SUV, struck down on the open highway in the moments after he had left his vehicle. His death is the central tragedy of the night's pileup.
The collisions did not stop there. Police say the SUV that struck Pagano was itself then hit by another car, extending the chain reaction as vehicles continued to pile into one another on the expressway before everything came to a halt.
In all, five vehicles were involved in the crash. Beyond the man who was killed, six people were left hurt, a toll that reflects how many drivers and passengers were caught up in the rapidly unfolding wreck on the busy roadway.
The sequence underscores the particular danger of leaving a vehicle on a high-speed highway after a crash. What might have remained a single collision instead escalated once a person was on foot among moving traffic in the dark, with deadly consequences.
Authorities are continuing to investigate the chain of events on the Atlantic City Expressway. For now, the crash stands as a stark reminder of how quickly a roadway emergency can multiply, leaving one family grieving and several others recovering from their injuries.