Tractor Trailer - SUV Collision Closed 280

Route 280 was closed on Thursday morning and remained congested into the afternoon due to a motor vehicle collision in which six members of one family were injured.  Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray and Acting East Orange Police Chief Thomas Koundry announced today that the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and the East Orange Police Department are investigating.

A 46-year-old Irvington man is in critical condition at University Hospital in Newark. His 27-year-old wife and four children are also hospitalized. The children are ages seven, five, three and one year old. The three older children are boys. The youngest is a girl.

Members of the family were traveling east in a Honda SUV on Freeway Drive in East Orange. At the intersection of South Clinton Avenue the car collided with a tractor trailer that was making a left turn. The SUV was thrown over the wall through a retaining fence – approximately 17.9 feet -- and landed on the eastbound side of Route 280.

The father, who was driving the car, had to be extricated from the vehicle.

The 39-year-old truck driver, who is from Pennsylvania, did not request medical treatment.

The investigation is active and ongoing.