VERONICA YANKOWSKI Flowers were placed at the site of a Christmas Eve vehicular accident at Ryders Lane and Corona Road in East Brunswick where a 9-year-old township boy was killed.
EAST BRUNSWICK — A Christmas Eve car crash left a 9-year-old township boy dead and his mother with a broken pelvic bone.
Thomas Jung Lee, a second-grader at Lawrence Brook School, was pronounced dead about 45 minutes after the crash, which occurred at Ryders Lane and Corona Road. Thomas died from injuries suffered when his head struck the interior of the vehicle that he was riding in, East Brunswick police said.
The accident occurred about 7 p.m. Dec. 24 as the boy and his mother, Young Lee, 40, of East Brunswick were on their way to church, said Randy Boll, an investigator from the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.
According to Boll, the boy and his mother were traveling in a Ford Windstar minivan and were making a turn from Corona Road onto the eastbound lane of Ryders Lane when their vehicle was hit. The vehicle was reportedly struck by a Dodge Intrepid driven by Rizwan Chaudhary, 23, of the Keasbey section of Woodbridge, who was traveling westbound on Ryders Lane at the time of the accident.
Police said an investigation is ongoing, however, as they are looking for the driver of a light-colored sports car that was stopped at the scene, Boll said.
"That car may have been involved," he said. "No summonses have been issued yet. There could have been more to it."
Boll said he could not comment further on what detectives from the prosecutor’s office may or may not suspect about the supposed third vehicle, but he did said they would like to talk to its driver.
East Brunswick police said the cause of the crash is under investigation, and no summonses have been issued yet.
Boll said Chaudhary issued a statement about the crash, but it was not being made public.
According to East Brunswick police, Thomas was seated behind his mother’s driver’s-side seat, and was partially ejected from his seat upon impact. He immediately suffered the head injuries, despite the seat belt he was wearing. He was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, where he was pronounced dead around 7:45 p.m.
His mother, Young, suffered a pelvic fracture and was also treated at Robert Wood Johnson.
Lee’s minivan was struck on the driver’s side directly behind the driver’s door, East Brunswick police said. The driver’s air bag was deployed.
Chaudhary was riding along with a passenger, Vaibhai Batra, 19. Both men suffered chest injuries and were taken to St. Peter’s University Hospital, New Brunswick, where they were treated and released, according to East Brunswick police. An air bag in Chaudhary’s vehicle was also deployed.
A number of flowers in memory of the 9-year-old boy have been placed at a curbside on Ryders Lane near the accident site.
Boll asked that anyone with information about the accident contact either him at the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office (732) 745-3332, or call Patrolman Anthony Giordano of the East Brunswick Police Department at (732) 390-6900.