HOLMDEL – Police are continuing to investigate the cause of a single vehicle crash that critically injured a former Woodbridge mayor and killed his wife as they were driving on the Garden State Parkway near PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel last week.
Philip Cerria, 85, and his wife Margaret Cerria, 84, of Lakewood, were driving in a car when it overturned around 3:38 p.m. on Jan. 3, according to state police.
Margaret Cerria died after the crash and Philip Cerria was transported to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune with serious injuries, police said.
Through a social media post on Jan. 5, Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac asked residents to “please keep the entire Cerria family in your thoughts and prayers.”
New Jersey State Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex) issued a statement on Jan. 5.
“It is with heavy hearts that my family and I offer our condolences to the former mayor of Woodbridge, Philip Cerria, and his family on the tremendous loss of his wife in a tragic accident on Friday,” he said. “Our sincerest sympathies and heartfelt prayers for a rapid recovery are with you at this difficult time.”
Cerria served as mayor in Woodbridge from 1984-87 and township clerk from 1992-99, according to the Woodbridge Township website.