Police say man reported
voices told him to hit SUV
OLD BRIDGE — Police say a Spotswood resident told them that the reason he hit a Dodge Durango carrying four children and one adult, causing the vehicle to flip over on Route 18, is that a voice told him to.
A 35-year-old Marlboro woman was driving her two sons and two young girls south on Route 18 at 4 p.m. Dec. 4 when Jerry L. Toth II, 35, driving a Jeep Cherokee, turned onto the highway from Oak Street, according to Old Bridge Sgt. Jack Sweeney.
Toth tried to pass the vehicle in the right lane, when, according to Toth’s statement to police, a voice told him to strike the SUV.
Toth’s vehicle then struck the passenger side of the SUV, said police.
The vehicle was forced off the road into trees and flipped before coming to a stop, according to police reports.
None of the occupants were seriously injured, and all were wearing seat belts.
The victims were treated at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, according to police.
Toth, who turned himself in at police headquarters approximately three hours later, told police that after he hit the vehicle, a voice instructed him to "take off."
Toth was charged with aggravated assault, reckless driving, leaving the scene of an accident and failure to report an accident.
Toth is being held in the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center, North Brunswick, in lieu of $100,000 bail.