OLD BRIDGE — A 29-year-old New York man was charged with driving while intoxicated in connection with a fatal accident on the Garden State Parkway on Sunday morning.
Mark Ellis, 29, of New York, New York, was reportedly driving a black GMC Yukon with three male passengers in the southbound express lanes near mile marker 122.3 around 7:03 a.m. on Oct. 11 when it rolled over, according to Sgt. First Class Gregory Williams, a State Police spokesman.
Ellis and his rear, right side passenger, Steven Rivera, 28, of Brooklyn, New York, were ejected from the vehicle. The preliminary investigation determined that Ellis and Rivera were not wearing seatbelts, Williams said.
Rivera was pronounced dead at the scene around 8:03 a.m., Williams said.
Ellis was medevaced to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick with very serious injuries.
Once released from the hospital, Ellis will be placed into custody. Williams said. He was charged with DWI, one count of vehicular homicide and two counts of assault by auto on Oct. 11.
Bail was set at $100,000, Williams said.
The other two passengers, who police said were wearing seatbelts, were transported to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune with non-life threatening injuries.
Officers from the New Jersey State Police fatal accident investigation and crime scene units responded to the crash. The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office also assisted at the scene.
The southbound lanes were reopened around 11:30 a.m.
The investigation into the crash is continuing, Williams said.