South Amboy, NJ — June 4, 2025, one person was killed in a dump truck accident at about 3:45 a.m. on U.S. Route 9 near the exit to Washington Avenue.

Authorities said a Ford F-250 was headed north when it collided with a dump truck that had just entered the highway. The impact forced the pickup into a guardrail, and it overturned and caught fire.

The Ford driver was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash after emergency crews extinguished the fire, according to authorities. His name has not been made public at this time.

No other injuries were reported.

Authorities have not released any additional information about the Middlesex County crash at this time. The accident is still being investigated.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

When a crash like this makes the news, where a dump truck enters a highway and a pickup ends up overturned and on fire, the first question most people have is, “How could this happen?” That's exactly the right place to start. What we know from the limited reports is that the pickup hit the dump truck after it entered U.S. Route 9, and the pickup caught fire after striking a guardrail. But that summary leaves out the most important piece of the puzzle: what exactly was the dump truck doing in the moments before impact?

It’s not clear whether the dump truck was already in the travel lane or still trying to merge when the crash happened. That distinction matters. If the dump truck entered the highway too slowly or failed to yield, it could have left the pickup driver with no way to avoid a collision. If it was already moving at speed and the pickup rear-ended it, we’d need to ask why the pickup driver didn’t see it in time. Either way, those questions point to something basic: we don’t yet know if this was a matter of poor driving, poor visibility or something else entirely.

One of the first things any good investigation should focus on is evidence from the vehicles themselves. That includes:

• Engine Control Module (ECM) data from the dump truck and the pickup, if available, which can tell us how fast each vehicle was going, whether the brakes were applied and when.
• Dashcam or in-cab camera footage, if the truck had it, which could clarify the timing and angle of the truck’s entry onto the highway.
• Cell phone records, to rule out distraction on either side.
• Lighting and visibility conditions at that hour, which might have played a role in whether either driver could see the other in time to react.

In many truck cases I’ve handled, the driver isn’t the only person whose decisions are under scrutiny. Sometimes companies send trucks onto the road without making sure their drivers are properly trained to handle highway merges, night driving or heavy loads. I've seen companies hire drivers with spotty records, or no real vetting at all, and then act surprised when something goes wrong.

Right now, we don’t know enough to assign blame. But I do know that getting answers will require looking beyond the crash scene. That means securing black box data, inspecting the vehicles, reviewing employment and training records and finding out if either driver had any history of incidents like this before.

Until someone does that work, this remains a partial story. One man has lost his life, and the least the system can do is provide a full accounting of how and why.

Key Takeaways

• It’s not yet clear whether the dump truck merged safely or cut off the pickup.
• Critical evidence — ECM data, dashcams and phone records — may shed light on how the crash unfolded.
• Visibility at 3:45 a.m. could be a factor, but that has to be confirmed through investigation.
• Responsibility may lie with the truck driver, the pickup driver, or the company that put the truck on the road.
• A thorough investigation is the only way to determine what really happened, and who should be held accountable.