A man died driving the wrong way on Route 55 near Mantua, the second fatal wrong-way crash on the same stretch since September 2024. Federal guidelines recommend specific countermeasures for such corridors. NJDOT has announced none.
A 24-year-old Bridgeton man driving the wrong way on Route 55 died last Monday night when his pickup truck slammed head-on into a tractor-trailer. The collision marks the second time since September 2024 that a wrong-way driver has died on the same half-mile of this Gloucester County freeway.
New Jersey State Police said Favian Cruz was traveling the wrong direction in the southbound lanes around 10:30 p.m. on July 13 when his Ram pickup collided with the truck near milepost 52. Cruz died at the scene. The truck driver went to a hospital with minor injuries, NBC10 reported. The southbound roadway did not reopen until 6:30 a.m. the next day. State Police have not said why Cruz was driving the wrong way.
Intersection and nearby roads have a history of accidents
September 2024 saw the first wrong-way deaths along that part of the road, near the intersection with Route 322. According to 6abc, just before 9 a.m. on a Thursday morning, a Jeep Compass heading south crossed into the northbound lanes at milepost 51.8 and struck a Toyota Rav4 head-on. The collision overturned both vehicles and the Rav4 caught fire.
Stanley Kahana, 62, of Philadelphia, and Jennifer Hufnell, 53, of Deptford, died in the crash. A driver in the southbound lanes recorded the Jeep traveling the wrong way before impact.
The toll on the broader corridor runs deeper. On July 5, 2026, Fox29 reported that a BMW with three occupants veered off the roadway to the left in Deptford, about five miles north of the wrong-way crash location. The car rolled and hit a tree, killing driver Ayzia J. Toledo, 22, of Bristol, Pennsylvania, and passenger Henrietta F. Carter, 22, of Darby, Pennsylvania. A third passenger went to a hospital with minor injuries.
In March 2025, three teenagers died near Route 55's Exit 48 in Elk Township, about five miles south of the intersection with Route 322. A Honda hit the back corner of an SUV ahead of it, veered across the shoulder and struck a disabled minivan with a woman and three children inside.
Interchange of 55 and 322 uses older design
The Route 322 interchange near milepost 52, approximately where both wrong-way crashes occurred, is a cloverleaf design with loop ramps on both sides of Route 55. Overhead imagery from Google Maps shows that the interchange sits adjacent to Inspira Medical Center Mullica Hill and the Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine, both major regional destinations.
Route 322 eastbound leads directly to Glassboro and Rowan University, just a few miles from the interchange. Seventeen miles to the west, the Commodore Barry Bridge carries the road over the Delaware at Logan Township. Route 55, meanwhile, feeds southbound traffic from Camden and Philadelphia via I-78. It continues past the intersection to the Vineland area. The two routes meet at the interchange where the wrong-way crashes occurred, and the cloverleaf creates a chokepoint for traffic in all directions.
Route 55 alternates between stretches with guardrails and stretches without. Hours before the July 13 crash, a tractor-trailer overturned in Glassboro, injuring one person and leaking diesel fuel, 6abc reported.
Google Street View imagery captured between May 2025 and June 2026 shows inconsistent basic countermeasure coverage across the four ramp terminals of the 55-322 interchange. Imagery shows standard Do Not Enter signs, Wrong Way signs and One Way signs at the exit ramps carrying traffic off Route 55. A Do Not Enter sign also appears at the northbound-to-westbound loop ramp. The exit of the southbound-to-eastbound loop ramp, visible in captures from December 2025, carries no Do Not Enter or Wrong Way signage in the reviewed imagery. Lowered Do Not Enter signs, red retroreflective raised pavement markers facing the wrong direction, LED-enhanced Wrong Way signs and channelized islands do not appear at any terminal in the reviewed frames.
The Mantua-Deptford stretch of Route 55 opened in October 1989, before enhanced wrong-way countermeasures became standard federal practice for repeat-incident corridors. The Federal Highway Administration compendium documents crash modification factors for these treatments, including a 0.189 reduction factor for daytime wrong-way crashes on freeway ramps with pavement arrows. Full cloverleaf interchanges historically record lower wrong-way entry rates than partial cloverleaf or diamond designs, but the direct ramp movements at this junction — where a driver on Route 322 could hypothetically cross the center line and enter an exit ramp from the wrong direction — create a scenario the current safety paradigm targets.
Street View captures do not reflect real-time conditions and may miss current signage. But the complete enhanced countermeasure package the Federal Highway Administration recommends for corridors with repeat wrong-way incidents does not appear in the available imaging.
That puts the corridor in a specific category: a 37-year-old freeway predating the enhanced countermeasure standard, serving a major medical destination that generates unfamiliar traffic. Two wrong-way crashes on the same half-mile have killed three people since September 2024, and the agency that maintains the road has announced no countermeasure response.
Assemblyman Moen will ask NJDOT to investigate
The toll along the Gloucester County stretch of Route 55 since September 2024 has reached at least eight deaths, confirmed in New Jersey State Police accounts and news reports. Assemblyman Bill Moen (D, 5th District), who sits on the Assembly Transportation Committee and represents part of Gloucester County, puts the toll higher.
"Over the course of the last four years, from my count, at least ten fatalities on Route 55 alone," Moen told 6abc in a July 15 report.
Moen said his staff is preparing a letter to the New Jersey Department of Transportation asking whether the two wrong-way crashes warrant new safety measures. "I think it does bring the question of whether we could be doing better as it relates to signage or lighting or things that would ultimately be responsible for individuals that might not be familiar with the area," he said.
The Department of Transportation maintains the 40.54-mile Route 55, which begins at Route 47 in Port Elizabeth, Cumberland County, and ends at Route 42 in Gloucester County. Most of the corridor carries a 65 mph limit, including the Mantua stretch.
Federal bridge inspectors counted roughly 24,000 vehicles a day at the Route 322 overpass and nearly 29,000 at the Mantua Creek bridge in 2021. NJDOT announced pavement preservation and resurfacing work on Route 55 in Gloucester County in 2023 and 2024. A review of the agency's online press archive found no announced safety project targeting wrong-way driving, signage or lighting on the Gloucester stretch and no statement on the corridor as of July 21. The department had not responded to a request for comment from 6abc as of the outlet's July 15 publication.
Drivers who spoke to 6abc offered different opinions.
"It's a fast highway. It's two lanes. I think people sometimes get carried away," CJ Carter of Clayton said.
"I do think it's a matter of personal responsibility. What I have noticed over the past couple of years — the speed limit means nothing," Tom Monzo of Pitman said.
Kara Gratton, a Minnesota resident who grew up in Media, Pennsylvania, told 6abc that "lighting or guardrails would be an improvement to [the highway] and make it safer."
New Jersey State Police continue to investigate the cause of last Monday night's crash. Whether Trenton answers Moen's letter, and whether the agency that maintains Route 55 decides two wrong-way crashes killing three people on one half-mile demands a response, is now the open question on the corridor.
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Sources
• 6abc, "Fatal wrong-way crash on Route 55 prompts questions about possible safety improvements," (July 15, 2026)
• 6abc, "South Jersey mother, children among those hurt in Rt. 55 crash that killed 3 teens," (March 13, 2025)
• 6abc, "Video shows vehicle going wrong way before fatal crash on Route 55 in Mantua Twp.," (September 6, 2024)
• CBS Philadelphia, "2 killed in crash on Route 55 in Deptford Township, New Jersey State Police say," (July 6, 2026)
• CBS Philadelphia, Jim McHugh, Nate Sylves and Nikki DeMentri, "Philadelphia man, New Jersey woman killed in Route 55 accident in Gloucester County, state police say," (September 6, 2024)
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• Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory, 2021 (ADT counts: US 322 over Route 55, 24,086; Mantua Creek bridge, 28,983)
• Fox29, "Driver killed in wrong-way crash with tractor-trailer on Route 55 in Mantua," (July 14, 2026)
• Fox29, Kamryn Scrivens, "Influencer Ayzia J, Henrietta Carter killed in rollover crash in New Jersey," (July 7, 2026)
• Fox29, "Video shows moments before crash that killed 2 on Route 55 in Gloucester County," (September 5, 2024)
• Gloucester County, New Jersey, 5th Legislative District Municipality Listing
• Google Street View, Mullica Hill Road [Route 322] at Route 55, Mantua Township (May 2025-June 2026)
• NBC10, Hayden Mitman, Siobhan McGirl and NBC Philadelphia Staff, "Route 55 southbound in Gloucester County reopens following deadly crash," (July 14, 2026)
• NBC10, "NJ high school student, recent grad killed in Route 55 crash," (March 10, 2025)
• New Jersey Department of Transportation, FY 2007 Capital Program, Route 55 resurfacing Gloucester County
• New Jersey Department of Transportation, Press Release Archive, reviewed July 20, 2026
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• NJ.com, Jeff Goldman, "Two 22-year-olds killed after car veers off rain-slicked N.J. highway," (July 6, 2026)
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