Bridgeton man killed in wrong-way Route 55 crash in Gloucester County
Favian Cruz, 24, of Bridgeton, died after police said his pickup went the wrong way on Route 55 and hit a tractor-trailer near Ellis Mill Road.
Police identified the driver killed in Monday night’s wrong-way crash on Route 55 in Gloucester County as Favian Cruz, 24, of Bridgeton. New Jersey State Police said Cruz was driving a pickup truck northbound in the southbound lanes when it collided with a tractor-trailer near Ellis Mill Road, leaving the truck severely damaged.
All southbound lanes were blocked after the wreck, and traffic backed up for miles as crews worked the scene. The crash added another fatal collision to a stretch of Route 55 that has drawn repeated concern in Gloucester County because of the number of deadly and chain-reaction wrecks there in recent years.
The Bridgeton connection makes the crash resonate beyond Gloucester County. Route 55 is a familiar commuter route for Cumberland County drivers traveling between Bridgeton, Vineland and Millville and points north, and a wrong-way crash on that highway can quickly affect families heading to work, appointments or overnight shifts. For many South Jersey drivers, the highway is not just a through route but a regular part of daily travel.
The crash came amid a run of serious Route 55 incidents in Gloucester County. Over the same weekend, a 63-year-old man was killed in a fiery crash in Elk Township while headed south on Route 55, and a chain-reaction wreck on the highway killed a third teen after leaving three others dead and seriously injuring a mother and her three children. Those back-to-back crashes have kept attention on the highway’s safety record and the circumstances that can turn a routine trip into a deadly one.
Wrong-way driving is among the most dangerous errors on any highway because it can leave drivers with little time to react before a head-on impact. On Route 55, where traffic can move quickly and visibility can change with curves, speed and lane separation, the consequences of one mistake can be immediate and severe. For Cumberland County commuters, the latest death is another reminder that the Route 55 corridor remains a high-risk stretch with local consequences well beyond Gloucester County.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
