In Brick Township, New Jersey, Lanes Mill Road is not the type of street that typically makes headlines. It passes by residential blocks and ball fields, as well as the kind of peaceful neighborhoods in Ocean County where children ride their bikes to school because the morning is still cool and the distance is short. That typical road turned into a crime scene at around 6:50 on Tuesday morning.
A Brick Memorial High School student was riding a bicycle west on Rhode Island Avenue and passing through a designated crosswalk when he was hit by a fast-moving 2021 BMW heading north. At the scene, the boy was declared dead. The motorist didn’t pull over. He didn’t make a police call. Investigators say he drove off.
While investigators from the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, the Brick Township Police Department, and the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Unit worked the area, a portion of Lanes Mill Road close to the school was closed for several hours. By the middle of the morning, the Brick School District had written a message to families that no school district ever wants to write. “This morning there was an accident that resulted in a tragedy for Brick Schools,” it said. Staff and students had access to grief counselors. Almost immediately, the word “accident” seemed like an understatement.
What transpired following the crash made the narrative more difficult to accept. According to a video that went viral online, two young men were seen inspecting the damaged BMW, appearing to be aware of what had happened, before leaving. Those pictures might play a major role in the court proceedings. The driver was arrested and charged with knowingly leaving the scene of a motor vehicle crash that resulted in death. According to New Jersey law, the driver was only identified as a juvenile. The Ocean County Juvenile Detention Center is where he is being held.
By no means is Brick Memorial, which is situated off that same section of Lanes Mill Road, a small school. It offers 23 Advanced Placement courses, competes in the Shore Conference, and enrolls about 1,269 students in grades nine through twelve. “Mustang Country” is the name given to it, and its motto is “Once a Mustang, Always a Mustang.” The school’s efforts to foster a sense of pride and community are now being put to the test in a way that no motto can prepare you for. A few weeks prior, the school was honoring a senior who had won the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Unsung Hero Award. In a NASA symposium, a group of students had finished second nationally. The community was familiar with that version of Brick Memorial. A new one was introduced on Tuesday morning.
Tragedies like this evoke a feeling that goes beyond simple grief to include a particular kind of disbelief that something so avoidable could have happened so carelessly. A child at a designated crosswalk. a fast-moving vehicle. A driver who persisted. The sequence is nearly too direct to comprehend.
What follows is a juvenile proceeding, complete with the legal safeguards that New Jersey provides for juvenile defendants, and a community that will be asked to regain its footing. It’s still unclear if Tuesday morning has a lasting impact on Brick Township or if that happens easily. There is a limit to what grief counselors can accomplish.
