‘It was a miracle nobody was killed.’ (NJ)

[TowNews]

 

Wrong-way driver on I-280 nearly hits tow truck in 80 mph close call.

 

For Anthony Archibald, the sight of a wrong-way driver speeding toward him on a highway in Morris County was too much to process.

“I’m like are you kidding me?” Archibald, 40, of Hopatcong, said on Monday. “It was coming at me 80 miles an hour, six inches away from my truck. It was surreal.”

Archibald said the close call occurred about 3:20 a.m. Sunday as he drove his tow truck on Route 280 East in Parsippany looking to make some money helping stranded motorists.

“He was in the fast lane traveling in the opposite direction as the rest of traffic. People were pulling over to get out of this guy’s way,” Archibald said. “It’s a miracle nobody was killed,” he said.

Archibald, who works for Ajaco Towing, said his newly purchased dashboard camera captured the glaring headlights of the wrong-way driver coming at him. He said he got the camera in case he’s involved in an accident “or for something crazy like this.”

“I watched it after I pulled over. It was incredible,” he said. But first Archibald called New Jersey State Police to report the driver. The call was also recorded on his dashcam.

“There’s a guy on the east side of 280 racing up the highway in the wrong direction onto 80,” he told a State Police dispatcher. “I don’t know what kind of car it was, but he passed me (going) at least 80 miles an hour.”

Archibald said his dashcam later captured a driver pulled over on Route 80. He believes the traffic stop involved the same driver.

A State Police spokesman said a driver had been arrested and charged with DWI after driving the wrong way Sunday morning on Route 80 East in Roxbury Township.

However, the spokesman could not confirm the man was the same driver Archibald reported traveling the wrong way on Route 280 East in Parsippany.

RESOURCE LINK with video