Trucker Charged in Wreck That Killed New Jersey Officer

A Brooklyn man driving a tractor-trailer that smashed into a parked police car and killed a Waldwick police officer early Thursday was charged in the deadly Route 17 wreck, prosecutors announced hours after the crash.

Ryon Cumberbatch, 29, faces a charge of second-degree vehicular homicide and was being held on $25,000 bail, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said in a statement.

The 2012 Freightliner 18-wheeler Cumberbatch was piloting slammed into the unmarked patrol car around 1:30 a.m. on Route 17 southbound, killing borough Police Officer Christopher Goodell, according to authorities. Goodell was in his car while running radar on the highway, near Bergen Avenue, NJ.com reports.

“The collision between the truck and the stationary unmarked police car occurred entirely in the shoulder of the highway,” the prosecutor said. “There was no evidence of pre-impact braking by the truck; instead it appears from the roadway evidence that Cumberbatch drove directly into the police car without stopping or attempting to stop.”