A Colorado man is facing multiple charges in connection with a wrong-way crash that killed four teenagers on the New Jersey Turnpike earlier this week, according to online court records.
Christopher Neff, 41, was charged with four counts each of first-degree death by auto and second-degree reckless manslaughter in the Oct. 19 head-on collision between a 2021 Dodge Ram pickup truck and a Mazda CX-5.
According to New Jersey State Police, the Dodge Ram was traveling north in the southbound lanes of the New Jersey Turnpike around 12:40 a.m. when it collided with the southbound Mazda.
After the crash — which occurred near milepost 1.3 in Carneys Point Township, in Salem County — a tractor-trailer struck the Mazda from behind, authorities said.
The crash killed all four people in the Mazda. The victims were later identified as 19-year-old driver Yaakov Kilberg, and passengers Aharon Lebovits and Shlomo Cohen, both 18, of Lakewood, N.J., as well as Chaim Grossman, also 18, of Fallsburg, N.Y.
Neff, who officials said was found with hollow-point ammunition at the time of the crash, was additionally charged with multiple weapons offenses, court records show.
Additional charges may be pending after first responders reported a “strong odor of alcohol” on Neff’s breath, according to records reviewed by NBC Philadelphia.
Police said he was also seen on surveillance video drinking at a Carneys Point bar about half an hour before the crash. Neff sustained fractures to both legs, a broken arm and other injuries in the collision.
The four victims were reportedly friends and classmates at the same yeshiva and were traveling to Tennessee for a school vacation.
Carneys Point, in southern New Jersey, is roughly 30 miles southwest of Philadelphia.
