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HILLSBOROUGH: Clint Benson charged with driving truck into man

   Clint T. Benson, 21, of Amwell Road in Hillsborough Township is free on $100,000 bail, but faces charges of aggravated assault with his automobile for deliberately driving his pickup truck into a man at about 3 a.m. Sunday, March 17.
   Mr. Benson is the son of former professional football player Brad Benson, now owner of a South Brunswick car dealership and known for his provocative first-person radio ads. Clint Benson lives and works on his father’s Rainbow Run Farm, and is listed as being in charge of cutting hay and harvesting on the “team” that runs the 350-acre property near Clover Hill.
   Branchburg Township police responded March 17 to Woodfern Road on a report of a pedestrian being struck by a motor vehicle. Officers found Richard Lachner, 23, of Raritan Township, near Flemington, lying in the roadway.
   The Branchburg Rescue Squad, along with Somerset Medical Center Paramedics, transported Mr. Lachner to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Trauma Center in New Brunswick, where he was treated for internal injuries, a fractured skull, a broken hand and lacerations about his body, police said.
   Branchburg detectives said that, according to witnesses, Mr. Lachner had confronted Mr. Benson, who was seated in his vehicle, about reckless driving. After the confrontation, Mr. Benson allegedly accelerated his Nissan Frontier truck and struck Mr. Lachner from behind as he was walking back toward a restaurant on Woodfern Road.
   After impact, Mr. Benson drove away in a southerly direction on Woodfern Road, police said, and crashed his vehicle into a guard rail a short distance away near the intersection of Lehigh and Woodfern roads. Mr. Benson and a passenger were located at the second crash scene, police said.
   Tests revealed Mr. Benson’s blood-alcohol content to be 0.20 percent, police said. The legal limit for presumed intoxication is 0.08 percent.
   Police said Mr. Benson has been charged with second-degree aggravated assault, third-degree assault by auto, leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident resulting in serious bodily injury (a third degree crime), as well as driving while intoxicated.