When the brakes went out this morning on a Farmingdale man’s box truck headed south on Interstate 295, the driver intentionally steered into the median guardrail to avoid colliding with the cars ahead of him.

Trevor Dupont, 31, scraped along the median guardrail near the Franklin Arterial and in the process side-swiped three cars headed south in the passing lane, said Trooper Lawrence Rose. There were no injuries.

The crash, at 7:50 a.m., shut down all but one lane of the interstate for about an hour and a half, delaying many morning commuters.

Dupont was driving the Chevrolet truck for an electrical supply company. The truck’s inspection had expired within the past month, Rose said.

Although the expired inspection yielded just a warning, a timely inspection might have caught and corrected the corroded and worn brake lines, he said.

“Obviously the brakes should have been worked on before they go to that point, but he did good by putting it into the guardrail,” Rose said.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.