HILLSBOROUGH: Car crash brings criminal charge

Car estimated to be going 86-90 mph in 40 mph zone

   When police arrived at the scene of a one-car accident on westbound Amwell Road almost a year ago, they found a man in a ditch, about 50 feet away from a crashed 2007 Mazda.
   He had been ejected from the back seat through the driver’s side window. A teenage girl was in the front seat, injured.
   Scientific investigation over time determined the car had been going between 86.5 and 90.6 mph, police said. The road has a speed limit of 40 mph.
   This week, police charged the driver, Gregory J. Wall, now 20, of 4th Street of the Flagtown section of Hillsborough Township, with two criminal counts of assault by auto for that incident at 9:24 p.m. March 5. He had been previously charged with drunken driving.
   The injured passenger, Matthew Corcoran, 47, was flown by helicopter to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick with multiple injuries, after being treated by the Hillsborough Rescue Squad and the Somerset County Medics. He was treated for a cut to his forehead, fractured left scapula, three posterior and four lateral rib fractures and a hematoma.
   The 17-year-old girl was treated at Somerset Medical Center for rib cage pain, too, from the crash, police said.
   Police said they smelled alcohol on Mr. Wall’s breath and clothing. Mr. Corcoran later told them that Mr. Wall had been drinking earlier that evening. Blood was drawn at Hunterdon Medical Center and a lab analysis showed that he had 0.14 percent ethyl alcohol in his bloodstream., police said.
   Hillsborough police and Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office conducted the investigation.