Accident happened on Garden State Parkway in Tinton Falls, nearby schools end up on lockdown.
Submitted by New Jersey Lawyer Motor Vehicle Accident, Jeffrey Hark
TINTON FALLS – It started with a collision on the Garden State Parkway Thursday, and soon, five borough schools were in lockdown mode.
Schoolchildren were holed up in their classrooms for more than an hour as police with dogs scoured the surrounding area for two men who ran from the crash.
Meanwhile, the two men police were looking for were in a taxi, en route to Jenkinson’s Pavilion on the boardwalk in Point Pleasant Beach.
But their day at the beach ended when authorities learned of their destination and put out alerts. The two men were taken into custody by two Point Pleasant Beach bicycle police officers who spotted them strolling along Ocean Avenue, police said.
A two-vehicle crash in the parkway’s southbound lanes at milepost 108.2 set off the chain of events at 10:37 a.m., said Trooper Alina Spies.
Tinton Falls police and state troopers responded to the location, just south of Exit 109, and found two vehicles off the roadway, with at least one of them overturned, Spies said.
The driver of one of the vehicles was injured at the scene and was taken by ambulance to Jersey Shore University Medical Center for treatment of injuries that did not appear life-threatening, Spies said.
Two occupants of the other vehicle ran from the scene and were nowhere to be found, she said.
State troopers and Tinton Falls police, as well as K-9 officers, fanned out in search of them, while Tinton Falls Police Chief John A. Scrivanic at 10:56 a.m. ordered the lockdown of five nearby schools – Monmouth Regional High School, Tinton Falls Middle School, Mahala F. Atchison and Swimming River elementary schools, and the private Winding Brook School, said Tinton Falls police Lt. Kyle Pierson.
Andy Teeple, principal of Monmouth Regional, said the school, located adjacent to the parkway on Norman J. Field Way in Tinton Falls, was in full lockdown mode for about 15 minutes. That meant pupils remained out of sight in classrooms where lights were shut off, blinds were closed, all the doors were locked, and teaching was suspended, Teeple said.
About 15 minutes later, the lockdown restrictions were eased, he said. Teaching resumed, but students were not allowed to leave their classrooms until further notice, Teeple said.
Pierson said some other borough schools further away from the parkway were not placed on lockdown because the absconders were believed to be on foot and not able to get that far.
But police soon obtained information that the pair had called a taxi and was headed for Jenkinson’s Pavilion on the Boardwalk in Point Pleasant Beach, Pierson said.
Point Pleasant Beach police were alerted to look for the two men.
Point Pleasant Beach Detective Clint Daniels said his agency got the call at 11:42 a.m. A short while later, bicycle patrol Officers Michael Kimble and Joseph Curry spotted two men fitting the description of those who fled from the parkway crash, walking on Ocean Avenue, Daniel said. The bicycle officers followed the men for a while before ascertaining that those were the men being sought, the detective said. The officers detained the two men at the corner of Ocean and Trenton avenues and waited until numerous state troopers and Tinton Falls police came to take them into custody, Daniels said.
Daniels did not have the identities of the arrested men, but said one was 30 years old, from Perth Amboy. One also had an arrest warrant out for him, Daniels said.
State police did not immediately identify the arrested men.
The schools lockdown order was lifted at 11:59 a.m., after authorities learned the two subjects had been taken into custody, Pierson said.
Originally published here on app.com