State Trooper Killed in Motor Vehicle Crash

Another state trooper was killed Monday in a motor vehicle accident. Frankie Williams, 31, assigned to the Port Norris station, died at Cooper University Hospital hours after the crash, which occurred around 7 pm. Witnesses say that Williams was traveling northbound on Route 55 when another vehicle traveling southbound crossed the median and struck his vehicle head-on. The driver of the other vehicle, Lloyd Rudley, 61, of Elmer, died at the scene of the crash.

Williams is the fourth New Jersey state trooper to die in a motor vehicle accident in the last two years. Others include:

• Trooper Sean Cullen, killed in March while helping a motorist at the scene of a vehicle fire
• Trooper Eli McCarson, killed in December 2015 when his cruiser hit a utility pole
• Trooper Anthony Raspa, killed in May 2015 when he hit a deer

Williams had been on the force less than a year, graduating from the academy in January 2016.

Witnesses said that Rudley was driving erratically just before the accident, but they have no idea what caused him to cross the median.

The accident brought the death toll on Route 55 this year up to eleven, an increase from 2015, when 7 motorists were killed. Police say the 40 mile stretch through Gloucester, Salem and Cumberland counties is a particularly dangerous one, especially in wet or snowy weather.

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