Manchester, NJ — April 28, 2025, Jack Lisowsky was killed and Stacy Clay was injured in a dump truck accident at about 2:10 p.m. on Pasadena Road.

Authorities said a 2023 Toyota Highlander collided with a 2023 Kenworth dump truck near Mount Misery Road, causing both vehicles to burst into flames. The SUV overturned as well.

Toyota driver Jack P. Lisowsky, 22, died in the crash, according to authorities, while truck driver Stacy W. Clay, 51, complained of lower body pain.

Authorities have not released any additional information about the Ocean County crash. The accident is still under investigation.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

When a crash between a passenger vehicle and a dump truck ends in fire and fatal injury, it’s not just the collision itself that raises legal concerns; it’s the intensity of the aftermath. Dump trucks are among the heaviest and most unforgiving vehicles on the road, and when they’re involved in a crash, the question isn’t just who had the right of way. It’s whether both vehicles were operating within the limits of safety, and whether the conditions leading up to the impact could, and should, have been managed differently.

Pasadena Road isn’t a high-speed interstate. It’s a two-lane rural road where visibility, vehicle spacing and lane discipline are all critical. That’s especially true when one of those vehicles is a fully loaded dump truck, with a high center of gravity, limited maneuverability, and increased stopping distance. Drivers of such vehicles are held to a higher legal standard because the damage they can cause in a crash is so severe. Investigators will need to determine whether the dump truck was speeding, whether it crossed the center line or whether the driver had time to react to the SUV and failed to do so.

But it’s also important to look at the SUV’s role. Did the driver attempt to turn in front of the truck? Was the vehicle drifting across the lane, or making an improper maneuver at or near the Mount Misery Road intersection? These are the kinds of facts that will help establish whether the collision was a result of one driver’s error, or if both vehicles were caught in a situation where there was no good outcome.

The fact that both vehicles caught fire raises additional safety questions, specifically whether fuel systems or mechanical failures contributed to the severity of the crash. Modern commercial vehicles are supposed to be built to reduce the risk of fire after impact. If the dump truck’s fuel system failed in a way that intensified the crash’s outcome, that could indicate a design or maintenance issue that goes beyond what either driver did in the moment.

In the end, what happened here can’t be reduced to a simple rear-end or sideswipe. A driver lost his life, a commercial vehicle was involved and the result was a fire intense enough to consume both vehicles. That kind of outcome demands answers; not just about who made the last mistake, but about whether anyone involved had the opportunity to prevent this from happening at all. And if so, why that opportunity was missed. Because once flames take hold and lives are lost, the focus has to shift from blame to understanding exactly how such a high-cost crash unfolded.