Loved ones are mourning four teenagers who were killed over the weekend after a pickup truck traveling the wrong way on the New Jersey Turnpike crashed into their SUV in Carneys Point Township, officials said.
The crash occurred in the southbound lanes of the NJ Turnpike south of Exit 1 in Carneys Point on Sunday around 1 a.m. Officials said a Dodge pickup truck driven by a 41-year-old man from Westminster, Colorado, was traveling northbound in the southbound lanes at the time when it collided with a Mazda SUV that was headed southbound.
The collision pushed the SUV into the path of a Freightliner tractor-trailer, driven by a 29-year-old man from Nova Scotia, officials said. The SUV was then struck by the truck.
The driver of the Mazda, later identified as 19-year-old Yaakov Kilberg, along with his passengers, Aharon Lebovits and Shlomo Cohen, both 18, of Lakewood, New Jersey, and Chaim Grossman, 18, of Fallsburg, New York, were all killed in the crash.
The driver of the pickup truck suffered serious injuries while the driver of the tractor-trailer was not hurt, police said.
Due to the crash, all lanes of the New Jersey Turnpike through that area were closed for several hours early Sunday.
Crash and Crash investigation on New Jersey Turnpike southbound South of Interchange 1 – Delaware Memorial Bridge (Carneys Point Twp) All lanes and left shoulder closed to traffic – traffic using right shoulder until further notice https://t.co/PJwo0gFiwg
— 511NJ TPK (@511njtpk) October 19, 2025
No charges have yet been announced in this incident. But, officials said, an investigation is ongoing.
Loved ones speak out
NBC10 spoke with friends and family of the victims.
Shloimy Lebovits, the brother of Aharon Lebovits, said his sibling had a larger than life personality. He also said all four victims were close friends.
“For me personally, it’s not just my brother but I knew all these boys personally and it’s a horrific tragedy,” Shloimy Lebovits said.
Yehuda Landau, a friend of one of the victims, told NBC10 he was heartbroken when he heard the news.
“I lost a close friend,” Landau said. “A good friend.”
Those who knew Cohen and Kilberg said they were standout volunteers at the Bikur Cholim of Lakewood, a nonprofit group that assists and supports families dealing with medical crises.
“We deal with a lot of crisis, a lot of emergencies, a lot of stuff,” Mordechai Brody, a member of the nonprofit, told NBC10. “But when it hits home and it’s one of ours…the volunteers are all still in shock.”
As officials continue to work to determine why the driver of the pickup truck was traveling the wrong way, Shloimy Lebovits said he doesn’t have anger toward the man.
“I believe in God,” he said. “I believe that everything that He did is for the best. And this is just going to be something that makes us, you know, continue to come closer as a family and as a community.”
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