Members of a New Jersey community are in mourning this week after recently learning about the death of a local resident. The man happened to be a police officer and was involved in a tragic motor vehicle accident involving a tractor-trailer.  Preliminary reports were unclear was to whether the officer was or was not on duty at the time of the collision that resulted in serious personal injury and a fatality.

What was clear was the fact that there was another person in the same vehicle. Witnesses say the car slammed into the back of the cab of a tractor-trailer that was not hauling its trailer at the time. One witness described seeing two people ejecting from the car upon impact.

One of those people was the police officer. Sadly, he was pronounced dead at the scene. The other vehicle occupant was immediately transported to a nearby hospital, listed in serious condition. The front end of the car was reportedly shredded to bits, with the windshield caved in.

When a personal injury occurs in a New Jersey motor vehicle accident, it often leads to litigation. State law allows a recovering victim to seek legal accountability against any and all parties deemed negligent in a collision. If the negligent party is deceased, a claim can be filed against his or her estate. It is up to the plaintiff in such cases to provide evidence that substantiates the claim. Such evidence may include, but is not limited to, testimony from medical experts, photographs of the crash site and eyewitness testimonies.