VIDEO: Cab Driver Seriously Injured in Route 9 Accident Next to Rescue Squad Building

A 74-year-old cab driver was seriously injured Wednesday when he tried to cut across Route 9 South to make a U-turn and was struck by an oncoming truck.

The accident happened at Queen Street - just steps from the Woodbridge Township Ambulance & Rescue Squad (WTARS) building at around 11:30 am.

The cab driver, who was driving a Rahway Station cab, had a 23-year-old passenger in the rear seat of the vehicle, said Woodbridge Police Officer Jerry DeStefano.

The cabbie was coming from Queen Street, and trying to cross three lanes of busy Route 9 to make it to a U-turn carved out of the median when he was hit by the driver of a Ford pickup truck.

"I don't know if he blew threw the stop sign [on Queen Street] or just coasted through it," DeStefano said.

The truck hit the cab with such force that the cab spun around at least once. "It might have been twice from the tire striations," DeStefano said.

The cab driver had to be pried out of the vehicle by the Fords Fire Department. 

He was taken by ambulance to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, the officer said. The cab passenger and the truck driver, a 49-year-old man from Millstone Township, were "banged up, mostly cuts and scrapes," DeStefano said.

An Avenel-Colonia First Aid Squad (ACFAS) crew went to the scene about 30 minutes after the accident when the cab passenger began to complain of chest pains, said ACFAS President John McHale.

The cab driver suffered leg, back, and head injuries, the officer said, and was in serious condition.

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